Israeli Defense Minister says anyone who attacks us "before or after the elections" will have their hand cut off and will pay the price, Al Hadath reports

Rhetoric of this kind from an Israeli defence official is a recurring feature of the security backdrop and has historically carried more signalling weight than market weight on its own; the established pattern is that crude, gold and the traditional havens reprice on kinetic escalation or a credible threat of supply disruption, not on declaratory language. The reference to elections situates the comment in domestic political positioning, a context in which hardline statements from incumbent security officials have tended to intensify ahead of votes without necessarily preceding operational change. The channel that matters for energy is whether any subsequent action touches Iranian-linked infrastructure, shipping through the Gulf or Red Sea, or insurance and freight costs, rather than the rhetoric itself; gold and the franc/yen bid in past episodes of this kind has followed confirmed strikes or retaliation cycles, fading quickly when none materialised. Worth noting the source is a regional outlet rather than an official transcript, which warrants some discount on precision. The tells from here are whether the remarks are repeated by the prime minister's office, any movement in force posture or reserve call-ups, and the response from the other side, since escalation sequences in this theatre have historically run through tit-for-tat exchanges rather than single statements.