Israel to seal West Bank crossings on election day as Netanyahu orders Hebron siege, Israeli press reports

All land crossings in the occupied West Bank will be closed to Palestinians on Tuesday, Israel's election day, an Israeli military spokesperson said Saturday in a post on X. Palestinian workers will also be barred from entering Israeli settlements in the territory between Sunday and Tuesday, cutting off a major source of income for many Palestinians.

According to Haaretz, the military imposed similar restrictions during previous elections, barring Palestinians from entering Israel on election day and the day after the vote. The army's announcement came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to prepare for a full lockdown of the West Bank, in response to Palestinian gunmen killing two soldiers at a checkpoint near Hebron on Friday.

Netanyahu also ordered the army to lay siege to Hebron, the West Bank's largest city, with approximately 250,000 residents, as collective punishment for the deadly incident. "We will act to destroy this place," he said of the Hebron neighbourhood the gunmen allegedly came from, adding that the army "will evacuate the residents".

Since Friday, Israel has expelled hundreds of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron, with Mayor Yousef Jaabari telling Middle East Eye that the city is "a disaster zone". Since the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks, Israel has prevented tens of thousands of Palestinian workers from entering the country, driving unemployment up. According to the International Labour Organisation, almost 200,000 West Bank Palestinians worked in Israel and the settlements before the attacks, while the number now stands at 44,000.

Separately, Haaretz reported Sunday that Netanyahu's Likud party is trying to monitor its voters on election day despite Supreme Court orders banning such tactics. Weeks after the court barred Likud from using a database of about a million potential voters to boost turnout, the party is reportedly "developing an alternative technological solution" to track supporters.

In previous election cycles, Likud representatives at polling stations used a special app to record who had voted, allowing the campaign to target supporters through phone calls, text messages and audio messages. The party defines the monitoring ability "as critical and especially important", since Netanyahu's election-day activities were previously decided according to where Likud turnout was low. Opposition sources warned that without clear instructions from the Central Elections Committee, Likud could bypass the court's decisions, while a committee spokesperson said a clear sign regarding the prohibition on collecting and transmitting voter information will be displayed at every polling station official's post.

Top Israeli economists have warned of "immense and irreversible damage" to the economy, two days after Netanyahu said Israel might use cryptocurrency to avoid the impact of international sanctions. "Netanyahu is knowingly leading the State of Israel towards international boycott and economic isolation," the economists said, according to Ynet, adding that his "puzzling solution is common among criminal organisations" and that his comments "attest to a basic lack of understanding and ignorance in the face of the collapse of Israel's standing in the international arena".

The warning followed Netanyahu's remarks to Channel 10 on Friday that cryptocurrency could weaken sanctions such as those the UK and other countries have imposed on Israel in recent years. Israel's Central Bank rejected the idea, saying "crypto coins can't serve as a way to bypass sanctions", but Netanyahu told Channel 14 News he will do what he thinks is best for Israel. The economists said the plan would affect all sectors, warning of high unemployment, paralysis of the banking system, an exodus of foreign labour and a collapse of healthcare, and that, as in South Africa, Russia and Iran, "the standard of living of Israel's citizens will plummet drastically".

In Tel Aviv, three Druze citizens of Israel were violently attacked on Thursday evening at a nightclub for speaking Arabic, independent journalist Daniel Amram reported Saturday. A group of Jewish Israelis allegedly confronted the young men, telling them "You will not speak Arabic here, get the hell out of our country", before the altercation turned into a physical assault outside the club. One of the Druze men was stabbed and rushed to hospital with stab wounds and bruises.

Residents of the men's hometown of Isfiya said no one had been arrested, adding: "We will not stay silent about this." On Sunday, Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing party The Democrats, visited the wounded man, stating that "the Druze and the Arabs are an integral part of Israeli society" and accusing Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of spreading hate. "This violence is fed by incitement, by racism, and by a government that legitimises them," said Golan, whose party is hoping to win Druze and Arab votes in the upcoming elections.