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Israel’s Ben-Gvir boasts of Gaza’s destruction, mocks Palestinian residents in AI-generated video
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The Israel Land Authority teams accompanied by Israeli police and Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demolish structures at the headquarters of UNRWA in Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir boasted Tuesday of the destruction of the Gaza Strip and mocked Palestinian residents in a campaign video released ahead of parliamentary elections, Anadolu reports.
Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, posted the AI-generated clip on US social media platform X, presenting a vision of Gaza in 2030 based on the widespread destruction inflicted by his government.
The video shows the enclave as a ghost town, with its schools, infrastructure and port destroyed.
A scene showing a donkey is followed by the party’s message: “You’d have to be a donkey to stay in Gaza,” mocking Palestinians who remain.
Ben-Gvir has repeatedly demanded occupying Gaza, displacing its Palestinian population and establishing Israeli settlements on the territory.
READ: Israel’s Ben-Gvir uses fines against mosques in election campaigning
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, launched with US support in October 2023, has killed more than 74,000 victims and injured over 175,000, while destroying 90% of civilian infrastructure.
Despite a ceasefire that has been in effect since Oct. 10, 2025, Israel has continued shelling, shooting and demolishing Palestinian structures, further expanding the destruction.
The campaign video comes after Arab parties accused Ben-Gvir on Sunday of exploiting his measures and violations against Palestinians to rally support and intimidate Arab voters.
Israel is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on Oct. 27, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc competing against opposition parties.
A Channel 12 poll published Monday projected 55 seats for opposition parties and 51 for Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, leaving both blocs short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
READ: Netanyahu says Ben-Gvir will hold prominent ministerial position in next government
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says he wishes someone would lock him up, small Orca speaks bluntly.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.

Andy Burnham stands with Israel
20 October 2026
Netanyahu says Ben-Gvir will hold prominent ministerial position in next government
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Israeli right wing Knesset member Itamar ben Gvir (R) chats with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) during the swearing in ceremony of the new Israeli government at the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in Jerusalem. [Photo by ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir would hold a prominent position in any future government he forms, following a public dispute over whether Ben-Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would be included in the next governing coalition.
In a video circulated on social media, Netanyahu told residents of the Israeli city of Lod that “Ben-Gvir will be a prominent minister” in the government he hopes to establish after the 27^th October parliamentary elections.
Netanyahu did not specify which portfolio Ben-Gvir would receive. Ben-Gvir currently serves as national security minister and leads Otzma Yehudit.
The remarks came a day after Ben-Gvir accused Netanyahu’s office of assuring several European Union countries that his party would be excluded from the next government.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Ben-Gvir claimed to have obtained documented information indicating that Netanyahu’s office had made formal commitments to European officials.
“According to confirmed and documented information that reached me in recent days, the Prime Minister’s office formally pledged to several European Union countries that Ben-Gvir would not be part of the next government,” he said.
Netanyahu’s Likud party rejected the allegations, describing them as “false political maneuvers.”
Likud also stated that Netanyahu intended to retain his existing coalition partners in any future government.
The dispute followed accusations by Otzma Yehudit on Saturday that Netanyahu was considering forming a unity government with former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot while excluding Ben-Gvir and his party.
The disagreement comes amid uncertainty over the composition of Israel’s next government.
Opinion polls cited in the report indicate that neither Netanyahu’s political bloc nor the opposition bloc is projected to secure the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-member Knesset, raising questions about potential coalition arrangements following the election.
READ: Smotrich renews threats against Egypt, saying ‘there will be no Sinai’
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says he wishes someone would lock him up, small Orca speaks bluntly.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.

Andy Burnham stands with Israel
20 October 2026
Egypt: Authorities Arrest Entire Investigative Newsroom
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Six journalists from the independent investigative journalism platform Matsda2sh arrested by Egyptian security forces between September 28 and 29, 2026. © Photo courtesy of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). [Human Rights Watch]
Egyptian security forces arrested six journalists working for the independent investigative journalism platform Matsda2sh on September 28 and 29, 2026, and appear to have forcibly disappeared them, Human Rights Watch said. The journalists’ whereabouts are unknown and their families and lawyers have not been permitted contact with them, Human Rights Watch reports.
Security forces arrested the journalists in raids across the country. They are: Abdallah Qadry, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Mohamed Adel. The six journalists constitute the investigate platform’s entire editorial newsroom.
“Egyptian authorities’ simultaneous arrest of the entire newsroom at a prominent independent news platform is deeply alarming,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Dismantling an entire newsroom in a matter of hours without warning or cause sends a chilling message to all journalists working in Egypt and shows just how little space is left there for critical reporting.”
Matsda2sh was established in 2018 and publishes investigations and verifies information on issues of public interest in Egypt and the wider region.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers represent all six journalists, said in a statement that security personnel who raided some of the journalists’ homes did not present arrest or search warrants and did not disclose the basis for their arrests or where they would be held. Security personnel also seized electronic devices belonging to the journalists and their family members.
On October 1, Egypt’s Interior Ministry acknowledged the arrests and said the six journalists were suspected of preparing what it described as “fabricated news” for Matsda2sh and alleged that the platform is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamic social and political movement. The ministry did not, in its statement, identify the specific criminal charges the journalists face or disclose where they were being held. The platform has denied the allegations.
More than 80 organizations including Human Rights Watch condemned the arrests and called for the release of the journalists.
The arrests of the Matsda2sh journalists come amid longstanding restrictions on independent journalism and freedom of expression in Egypt. The country remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 25 journalists behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In September 2025, authorities detained an independent journalist, Ismail Iskandarani, over Facebook posts and charged him with offenses including “spreading false news” and “belonging to a terrorist organization.” In 2026, the authorities prosecuted and imprisoned a writer and activist, Ahmed Douma, on “false news” charges stemming from an article and a social media post about detention conditions in Egypt.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented repeated arrests and prosecutions of peaceful critics, human rights defenders, journalists, and online content creators in Egypt. Egyptian authorities routinely flout due process protections and security forces subject individuals under investigation to forcible disappearance, holding them in various places of detention.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, protects the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas. Under international law, the detention or abduction of a person by state forces, followed by the authorities’ refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or reveal the person’s whereabouts or situation, may constitute an enforced disappearance.
“The incommunicado detention and potential enforced disappearance of six journalists raises serious concerns for their safety and due process rights,” Khawaja said. “Egyptian authorities should immediately disclose their whereabouts, grant access to their lawyers and families, and ensure that no journalist is detained or prosecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression or for doing their job.”
READ: Egyptians do not trust General El-Sisi’s promises
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
20 October 2026
Smotrich renews threats against Egypt, saying ‘there will be no Sinai’
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, during an interview in Tel Aviv, Israel on 5 December, 2024 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has renewed his threats against Cairo, questioning President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s assurances that the country has no territorial ambitions and does not seek war with Israel, and warning that it could lose the Sinai Peninsula.
Smotrich said he is not reassured by Sisi’s statements, adding that Israel would ensure Cairo does not attack it if it understood, in his words, that “the next time they attack, there will be no Sinai”.
The remarks follow an earlier controversy over Smotrich’s comments about the peninsula. In a video interview, he said Egypt would lose Sinai if it attacked Israel.
Cairo rejected the Israeli minister’s remarks, describing them as “empty threats” and affirming its ability to protect its territory and independence.
Sisi responded to the Israeli statements during the 44th Armed Forces cultural seminar, held last week to mark the 53rd anniversary of the October War victories.
“Who told you we want to fight? We have no agenda against anyone. We have our land. We fought for it, regained it, and that was the end of it,” he said.
The president stressed that his country had fought to defend its territory and had regained all its land, adding that its priorities are protecting national security and stability and safeguarding the interests of its people. He also said the peace treaty with Israel remains the framework governing relations between the two countries.
In his speech, Sisi presented the two-state solution as a path towards long-term stability through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, with the rights of both sides respected.
Smotrich also addressed the Gaza Strip, saying its residents had been taught to hate Israel and calling for their hope to be “cut off”.
READ: Egypt unveils new laser system to intercept drones in Sinai
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says he wishes someone would lock him up, small Orca speaks bluntly.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.

Andy Burnham stands with Israel
20 October 2026
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threaten to target key internet cables
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A view from the exhibition as Iran exhibits its missiles, satellite-carrying rockets and air defence systems, including the missiles and drones used in the Israeli attack, at the Aviation and Space Park Permanent Exhibition Centre of the Revolutionary Guards Army in capital Tehran, Iran on November 12, 2025. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to target major internet cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz, saying it has identified new targets amid the ongoing war with the United States and the tightening blockade on Iran.
“Seven major internet cables pass under the Strait of Hormuz, and the enemy must know that we have new targets,” the IRGC said on Monday.
Earlier, US embassies in four Middle Eastern countries warned of possible rapid security developments, including attacks by Iran and its allies.
The warnings were issued in statements late on Sunday by US embassies in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Israel.
The embassies urged US citizens to exercise ‘heightened vigilance’ due to the “complex security environment”.
They also warned of “potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.” They advised Americans travelling to and from the region to monitor updates from airports and airlines and prepare alternative plans in advance.
The statements said “Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions.”
The embassies warned that these “hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area.”
Araghchi: Europe paying price for miscalculations, just like US
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says he wishes someone would lock him up, small Orca speaks bluntly.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.

Andy Burnham stands with Israel
20 October 2026