Israel doubles down on attacks ahead of October election
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Israel's military killed at least 57 Palestinians including six children and eight women between July 13 and 20, per the UN human rights office, with a drone striking a funeral procession at Nuseirat refugee camp on July 17 killing eight mourners burying a man killed hours earlier.
- Israel's security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels ($426.3m) for 34 new West Bank settlements and 1.075 billion shekels ($352.5m) for settler road infrastructure, which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called a "settlement and security revolution" targeting more than 100 settlements and 160 outposts.
- Settler violence escalated across the West Bank, with 17-year-old Fadi al-Naasan dying of wounds from a July 11 raid in al-Mughayyir, more than 100 armed settlers attacking Sinjil on July 16, and arson at the at-Tawani mosque, two homes and a dairy factory in Masafer Yatta on July 18 and 19.
- Defence Minister Israel Katz said while touring northern Gaza he felt "satisfaction from the scenes of destruction," announcing Israel was studying three new military-style settlement outposts there as the Nachala settler movement marched to the Gaza border endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
- Gaza's humanitarian crisis deepened, with 63% of households accessing less than six litres of drinking water daily, 60% living within 10 metres of exposed sewage, livestock feed imports blocked for over a month tripling barley prices, and the Israeli-controlled "Yellow Line" expanding westward forcing more families to flee.
- Hamas elected Khalil al-Hayya as head of its political bureau on July 20, ending nearly two years of collective leadership following Yahya Sinwar's killing.
- Netanyahu's outgoing coalition passed a Communications Law granting the government control over broadcast media and protections shielding ultra-Orthodox men from conscription, while Environment Minister Idit Silman reclassified the Nile crocodile as a "tended" species to clear a legal path for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's proposal to surround Palestinian detention facilities with the reptiles.
Why it matters: Israel's parliament dissolved for October 27 elections, and the same week locked in $779m for settlement infrastructure, a westward-expanding "Yellow Line" in Gaza, and military-style outposts under active study. Defence Minister Katz's open "satisfaction" at destruction signals policy, not incident — months of escalating faits accomplis before voters weigh in.
