Israel far-right political figures are increasingly using policies and actions involving Palestinians as campaign messaging ahead of an October election, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political bloc faces pressure in opinion polls.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose image already appears on campaign billboards across the occupied West Bank, has released an AI-generated campaign advertisement warning that he would pursue policies in the Negev and Galilee similar to those he supports in the occupied West Bank.
The video, which targets areas with large Palestinian populations inside Israel, carries the slogan “Ahmed is right to be afraid” and promotes the expansion of Jewish settlements.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also released an AI-generated video depicting Palestinian prisoners entering Israeli jails and emerging in visibly weakened conditions. He has separately published footage of himself confronting Palestinian women prisoners and another video showing him placing an Israeli flag at seized UNRWA facilities in occupied East Jerusalem.
The campaign material comes alongside a series of government actions affecting Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In Gaza, Israeli military operations continue to cause casualties among civilians, with recent strikes affecting farmers, delivery workers, fishermen, children and other residents.
A drone strike on August 28 killed three members of the Abdin family while they were farming in al-Qarara, according to reports. Another man was reportedly killed the following day near Deir el-Balah.
Separate strikes also killed at least four people working as delivery drivers or travelling on electric bikes, while a quadcopter dropped a bomb near children collecting water in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood.
On August 30, a strike near a bakery west of Deir el-Balah killed Husam Osama Nasir and three-year-old Tim Said Mahmoud Hamdan.
The following day, two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting the entrance of a residential building near Municipality Park in Gaza City.
Medical facilities are also facing the impact of the continuing conflict. A drone strike on August 29 hit a medicine warehouse inside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, wounding three people.
Hospital officials also reported shortages of cancer medicines after another strike damaged water tanks and laboratory equipment at the facility.
Alongside the ongoing airstrikes, reports indicate that Israeli military leaders are considering a ground operation to reoccupy Gaza City.
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Israeli journalist Amir Bohbot reported in Walla News that Israel’s military leadership now considers such an operation “unavoidable”.
The plan, reportedly presented by the commander of Israel’s Southern Command, would involve moving Gaza City residents to designated “humanitarian zones”.
According to the report, the proposed operation would take place after the October election, adding another major issue to an increasingly contentious political campaign.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports 32 additional deaths during the past week, bringing the reported death toll since the October ceasefire to at least 1,320 as of August 31.
The ministry puts the cumulative death toll since October 2023 at 73,456. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also reports that about 58 percent of Gaza’s population continues to face critical or catastrophic shelter conditions.
The situation is also intensifying in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian residents continue to report attacks, home demolitions, land seizures and pressure from Israeli settlers and security forces.
In al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, soldiers and masked settlers reportedly raided the village on August 30.
Four residents were reportedly shot as soldiers sealed the village’s only entrance, while settlers surrounded a home and loaded property onto a pickup truck.
In Qusra, Israeli authorities also erected three new metal roadblocks around the Ras al-Ain hilltop on August 27, according to reports.
Settler violence has been reported in several other communities. In al-Karmel, south of Hebron, soldiers reportedly opened fire on a vehicle carrying women returning from a wedding, wounding three people, including 14-year-old Lana al-Hroush.
In Beita, south of Nablus, settlers reportedly attacked and ransacked homes on August 30. Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem described such incidents as routine and said they occur with the backing of Israeli authorities, while soldiers sometimes participate or remain at the scene.
Late on August 30, two Palestinians were reportedly killed and another detained during an Israeli raid in Nablus.
Other reported incidents include the burning of farmland in Turmus Ayya, an assault on a former Bethlehem governor, attacks on elderly women collecting figs in Silwad and the removal of gates from Palestinian agricultural land southeast of Bethlehem.
At the same time, Israeli authorities are advancing additional measures involving Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Israel issued a military order for the seizure of land around al-Bireh, on the outskirts of Ramallah, to create what authorities describe as a security route around the nearby Psagot settlement.
The settlement is considered illegal under international law, while Palestinian officials and rights groups continue to oppose Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied territory.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says the latest order is among 46 buffer-zone orders issued since October 2023.
In Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, settlers reportedly levelled land to expand Beitar Illit, while similar work began near al-Minya to turn an outpost into a formal settlement, according to local reports.
Israeli monitoring group Peace Now says settlers have established at least 26 new outposts within Area B of the West Bank over the past two and a half years.
The group says more than 100 square kilometers across Areas A and B are now under settler control. While settlement expansion continues, Palestinian homes are also facing demolition.
Israeli forces reportedly demolished two homes in Nablus city on August 31 and began large-scale demolitions in the al-Saqi area of Birzeit, north of Ramallah.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says 80 Israeli demolition operations took place in July alone.
In Qusra, settlers reportedly returned to the area on August 29 and attacked a home under construction with stones.
When Israeli soldiers arrived about 40 minutes later, Palestinian residents were reportedly detained and beaten, while the settlers left without arrest.
Netanyahu later condemned the attackers as a “handful of rioters”, but the reported lack of arrests among the settlers drew further criticism.
With the October election approaching, the combination of campaign rhetoric, military operations, settlement expansion and rising tensions across Gaza and the West Bank continues to place the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the centre of political debate.
Al Jazeera
