From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
PM: Iran working to orchestrate attack to influence election, maybe through Hamas and Hezbollah
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Iran is trying to orchestrate an attack to influence Israel’s October 27 election — possibly through its Hezbollah and Hamas terror proxies, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an interview with Channel 14.
Asked about reports of such a plan, Netanyahu says, “I can tell you that’s right. Just right. They want to do it directly or via one of their proxies.”
He adds that Iran may want to orchestrate such an attack in the West Bank as well.
“They say openly, ‘We have to bring down Netanyahu’,” he says, listing not only Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, but also PA President “Mahmoud Abbas and “Mansour Abbas” — the leader of the Israeli Arab party Ra’am. They all say they want to oust him, he says, because “they want to destroy Israel. In order to prevent this, we have to win.”
Earlier Tuesday, Netanyahu warned Israel’s enemies not to test it in the lead-up to elections.
Asked whether Saudi Arabia has asked for help in the fight against the Houthis, Netanyahu answers, “There are barely any Middle Eastern states that aren’t asking us for help.”
He adds that Western countries publicly condemning Israel are also asking for help and defense technology from Israel.
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