Israel: security official says military operation will continue after election

A senior Israeli security official has confirmed that the current high security alert will continue beyond the General Election slated for 1 November because of the increasing alarm at possible anti-occupation attacks by Palestinians, Israel Hayom reported on Sunday. However, the official added that when the closure of the occupied West Bank ends on Monday evening after the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the situation is expected to calm down. The Israeli occupation authorities shut down crossings across the occupied West Bank on Sunday evening.

“The current tension on the ground could see any small incident explode into a widespread conflagration in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said the unnamed official. He warned that right-wing Israeli extremists might carry out revenge attacks against Palestinians.

According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, officials from the Shin Bet internal security agency met with a senior settler rabbi and asked him to order students of religious schools to stop attacks on Palestinians. The security officials were apparently happy with the meeting, but the reality of the daily terrorist attacks by the settlers has not changed.

Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas pointed out, for example, that illegal Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Urif on Sunday, near Nablus, which has been under a strict Israeli-imposed closure for days.

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