Likud claims election 'stolen' by Arab parties, demands investigation ...

Key updates

Knesset seat projections over time

Possible coalitions according to the latest poll

*Joint List and Ra'am may support a coalition without formally joining

Where the parties stand on key issues

Syria summons Jordan’s ambassador over strikes on southern province

Syria’s foreign ministry summoned Jordan’s ambassador to Damascus and handed him a protest note over what it described as Jordanian strikes on civilian sites in Syria’s Daraa province, state news agency SANA reports.

IDF razes West Bank homes of Palestinians behind explosive attacks

The Israeli military this morning razed the homes of two Palestinians who it says carried out several attacks on troops in the West Bank.

Ibrahim Daoud and Zakaria Daoud, residents of Beita near Nablus, are accused by the IDF of carrying out three explosive device attacks in 2024 and 2025, injuring several Israeli security personnel.

Troops, including combat engineers of the elite Yahalom Unit, operated in Beita this morning and demolished the two houses, the military says.

IDF asks soldiers to return ‘unlawfully removed’ weapons, gear — no questions asked

The Israeli military has launched a weapons return campaign, especially aimed at reservists who may have taken army gear home with them during the past three years of war.

Between November 1 and 12, the IDF is set to open some 65 stations and collection points at bases across the country, where weapons and equipment can be returned, with no questions asked.

The military says that soldiers, both in the standing army and reserves, can return the weapons and equipment “without the need to identify themselves and without prosecution for their unlawful removal, possession or carrying.”

The IDF is looking to see all sorts of firearms returned, along with night-vision equipment, communications equipment, uniforms, protective gear including ceramic vests, helmets and tactical vests, and medical equipment, among other gear.

The aim of the operation is to “strengthen public safety,” prevent the use of military equipment outside the IDF, and ensure that weapons are held only by authorized personnel, the military says.

“The operation is also intended to reduce the risks associated with keeping weapons in unsafe conditions and prevent them from reaching hostile elements,” the IDF adds.

Trump: I haven’t thought about pushing for Netanyahu-led unity government, I’ll ‘take a look’

US President Donald Trump says he’ll “take a look” at getting involved in efforts to form a unity government in Israel headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Asked about such a scenario during an interview with the Axios news site, Trump claims he hadn’t thought about the idea.

“I will take a look,” he says.

Netanyahu’s main rivals — Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot, B’Yachad chief Naftali Bennett, Joint List chief Yousef Jabareen, Democrats chief Yair Golan and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman — ruled out such collaboration during the campaign.

Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas has also indicated that he would not join a Netanyahu-led government due to the current coalition’s treatment of the Arab minority, though he said last night that he’s been in talks with members of the pro-Netanyahu bloc in recent days.

With most of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to receive roughly 53 seats, with the remaining 67 going to opposition parties. However, that latter group includes 19 seats representing Arab parties, who have been ruled out as political partners by key members of the Jewish-led anti-Netanyahu bloc.

Trump says he received initial “horror reports” reports about Netanyahu’s prospects in yesterday’s election but that the premier is “in pretty good shape now.”

“I heard my endorsement made a big difference for Bibi,” Trump adds.

Elections panel says it is reviewing all fraud allegations after Likud demand for probe of Arab parties

The Central Elections Committee says it is reviewing allegations of election fraud and irregularities raised by all parties, following a demand by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud for an investigation into alleged widespread fraud in yesterday’s election.

“The Central Elections Committee has launched its election-integrity monitoring operation, as it does in every election, as part of which all inquiries from parties concerning election integrity or alleged errors in the results will be examined,” the committee says in a statement.

Likud had claimed the election was “stolen” by Arab parties.

The CEC notes that its acting director general, Dean Livne, informed all electoral lists of the procedure on October 25, two days before the election, inviting them to submit details of polling stations whose results they believe warrant examination.

“The committee received Likud’s request and is reviewing it as part of this operation,” the CEC says.

The allegations follow unprecedented turnout among Arab voters, with the Arab-led parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, projected to reach a historic combined high of 19 seats.

The accusations continue Likud’s efforts throughout the campaign to delegitimize Arab political parties, whose support could prove decisive in forming an opposition government. While Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to fall short of a majority despite Likud emerging as the largest party, the Jewish-led opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot could still form a government with Arab support. But some opposition parties have rejected that idea, and it is a prospect Likud has consistently sought to discredit.

Acquittal of alleged neo-Nazi sparks outrage in Austria; court said to wish him happy birthday

The acquittal of an alleged neo-Nazi accused of displaying Nazi-inspired symbols and possessing Nazi propaganda has caused an uproar in Austria, with critics denouncing a “scandal of the highest order.”

A court in Vienna on Friday convicted the 42-year-old, an alleged member of the far-right Unsterblich (Immortal) group, of carrying a knife and handed him a three-month suspended sentence.

But the defendant, who was not named, was cleared on charges of repeatedly wearing clothing bearing illegal Nazi symbols at sporting events and possessing Nazi propaganda material.

The Mauthausen Committee of Austria, a Holocaust remembrance organization, criticizes the verdict and reports that the court has been overly cordial with the defendant, wishing him happy birthday during the proceedings.

“The conduct of the proceedings and the acquittal are a scandal of the highest order,” says Willi Mernyi, chair of the association.

Prosecutors in Vienna confirm to AFP that they launched an appeal against the verdict.

According to Austrian news agency APA, the defendant had previously been convicted in 2022 over banned Nazi symbols and even his lawyer was expecting another conviction.

Austria has long grappled with a strong far-right movement, ranging from parliamentary parties to informal neo-Nazi networks and extremist soccer hooligan groups.

The extreme-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, topped the polls in legislative elections held in 2024, though it failed to find partners to govern.

“It is obvious that the shift to the right has reached parts of the justice system,” Mernyi says, adding that “effective countermeasures are urgently needed.”

The defendant was charged as part of an investigation into alleged members of Unsterblich, a far-right network associated with the Austria Wien football club.

Several members of the group were searched in 2023 in Vienna and Lower Austria on allegations of displaying banned Nazi symbols.

Austria Wien banned the group in 2013 over racist chants and Hitler salutes.

Palestinian arrested in West Bank for saying he intended to commit terror attack — police

A Palestinian man in his 50s was arrested by police officers in the southern West Bank last night for allegedly expressing intent to carry out a terror attack.

Police say officers and IDF troops raided the town of Yatta and apprehended the man after receiving a report that he “stated that he intended to carry out an attack against Israeli civilians.”

The man is suspected of “threats to carry out an attack and endangering regional security,” and is currently being questioned by law enforcement, police add.

Reports: Four Palestinians killed in strike in southern Gaza

Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza report that four people were killed in a drone strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Gaza Strip. Several others were reported injured.

The IDF has yet to comment.

مجمع ناصر الطبي يعلن استشهاد 4 فلسطينيين وإصابة آخرين في قصف بمسيرات إسرائيلية على منطقتي المواصي في رفح وخان يونس جنوبي قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/JImNi2u3RZ

— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) October 28, 2026

NY announces commission to establish first state-sponsored Holocaust memorial

Jewish community leaders will head a commission to establish New York state’s first state-sponsored Holocaust memorial, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announces.

The 19-member advisory commission will help guide the memorial’s design and development, Hochul’s office says.

The commission includes Ariel Behrman, vice president of education at the Anti-Defamation League; Tali Farhadian, CEO of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage; Masha Pearl, the head of the Holocaust survivors aid group the Blue Card; and Daniel Rosenthal from the UJA-Federation of New York.

“At a time when antisemitism and intolerance continue to threaten communities across our state, nation and around the world, this memorial will ensure that the stories of victims, survivors and their families remain visible,” Hochul says.

Other commission members are from the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Boro Park Y, the American Jewish Committee and the Center for Jewish History.

Hochul signed legislation to establish the memorial late last year.

The memorial will be built at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, the state capital.

There are Holocaust memorials in New York State, but none are funded and supported by the state government.

Some Jewish researchers have questioned whether Holocaust education is an effective means of fighting antisemitism.

Likud claims election ‘stolen’ by Arab parties, demands investigation into alleged fraud

Claiming yesterday’s election was “stolen” by Arab parties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party demands an investigation by police and the Shin Bet into allegations of widespread voter fraud and intimidation.

“The elections in Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terror and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries and the use of illegal software to mobilize voters,” insists the Likud party in a statement.

The Arab-led political parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, which run in every election and hold seats in the Knesset, received a record number of votes yesterday, and are projected to win a historic high of 19 seats. That number means that both Netanyahu’s bloc and the Jewish-led parties opposing him will be far from achieving a Knesset majority.

Throughout the campaign, Netanyahu’s party said cooperation with Arab parties was illegitimate. In its statement today, Likud says it is giving the police, the Shin Bet, and the Central Elections Committee “hundreds of testimonies” and other evidence, including “thousands of envelopes with cash and Ra’am slips, threats and violence towards ballot committee members, multiple voters behind the voting screen, double voting, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, use of illegal voter mobilization software, and more.”

Likud demands a “thorough investigation” and an immediate response from the CEC regarding an investigation.

Earlier today, in an interview with Channel 12, an official from the CEC dismissed claims of fraud in the election.

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