Ahead of Israel’s fourth election in two years, the Knesset Guard, the Shin Bet, and other security agencies prepared for a possible scenario of masses of people storming the Knesset buildings during the election, Channel 13 reported.

The safety preparations, which were purely precautionary as there were no concrete threats detected by the agencies, were intended to thwart violent riots such as what took place at the Capitol in Washington in January.

The report added that a special operations room was also established at the Knesset by Israel Police, the Shin Bet, and the state prosecution to monitor security during the elections.

Israel Police deployed about 20,000 police officers across the country on Tuesday, including 15 special and undercover teams at hundreds of polling stations where incidents have occurred in the past to prevent “attempts to harms the election’s integrity.”

About 3,500 police officers with body cameras patrolled the areas around polling stations.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)