World · Middle East · UB-127
Israel election: Netanyahu warns Iran is preparing to destroy Israel as thousands rally against him in Tel Aviv
Published 25-10-2026 · UB-127 · 🇮🇱🇮🇷🇺🇸 · ✓ 6 linked sources
Two days before the 27-10-2026 vote, Netanyahu posted an AI image of a nuclear blast over Tel Aviv. His defence minister says no Iran campaign is planned before the election, and Trump says strikes could come "maybe tomorrow".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on 25-10-2026, two days before Israel's 27-10-2026 general election, that Iran is preparing to destroy Israel. In a post on X, he said Tehran was preparing a "second Holocaust" that only his government could prevent, and shared an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud over the Tel Aviv skyline, HNGN reported.
The post came hours after Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel was not launching an Iran campaign before the vote and accused the opposition of irresponsibility. Army chief Eyal Zamir reportedly sees no operational need for a strike, and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot said there is no immediate Iranian threat that requires war before the election. Opponents called the post an appeal to fear by a leader who may be losing; allies said it accurately reflects the threat from Iran's nuclear programme.
On the night of 24-10-2026, thousands of people gathered at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv for a final large rally against Netanyahu before the vote, chanting "shame" and holding signs such as "Keep calm and vote him out", ABC News and AP reported. Their central demand was an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures before the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which Netanyahu has refused. Opposition figures Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman, Yair Golan and Gadi Eisenkot attended.
Earlier this month, former prime minister Ehud Barak told Channel 12 that "Netanyahu is preparing the infrastructure to go to war in a way that would postpone the elections". No response from Netanyahu to that claim has been reported.
In the United States, President Donald Trump told reporters on 24-10-2026, after voting in Palm Beach, Florida, that new strikes on Iran were possible "maybe tomorrow". "There's also a possibility we'll have a nice, big, beautiful agreement," he added, saying Iran wants a deal but questioning whether Tehran would honour one. A ceasefire has been in place since the US-Israeli war on Iran that began in February 2026, but no final peace deal has been reached.