Israeli leaders threaten ‘war’ in the West Bank after terror attack

Israeli leaders are threatening to unleash a war on terror groups in the West Bank in the wake of a shooting attack that killed three Israelis in the territory on Monday.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, used bellicose language when discussing Israel’s response to the attack, in which Palestinian gunmen fired on vehicles on a northern West Bank highway, killing three people. He said he told Israel’s military to bolster its forces in the West Bank.

“The lowly murderous attack that occurred here yesterday is an act of war in every sense and will be answered accordingly,” Katz said at the site of the shooting. “We will act with strength against the attackers and those who send them, and also against those who give them support.”

The past year or so has already been one of the most violent periods in decades for the West Bank. After Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Israeli military has conducted numerous counter-terror raids in the West Bank, killing hundreds of Palestinians and arresting thousands. Recently, the Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and coordinates with Israel’s military, has also fought terrorist cells.

Dozens of Israelis have been killed during that time in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. When Israel’s leaders discuss the  war they have led against regional terror groups, the West Bank is frequently included as one of the fronts alongside Gaza and Lebanon.

Now, as a fragile ceasefire holds in Lebanon and negotiations over a Gaza truce are ongoing, some Israeli leaders are pushing for the military to shift its focus to the West Bank. The front pages of both of Israel’s leading newspapers on Tuesday morning reported calls from local Israeli settlers for a broader military operation in the West Bank.

The threats of broader military action in the West Bank are coming in part from far-right leaders who have long advocated a harsher crackdown on Palestinian terror groups in the territory and who want Israel to control it perpetually. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who staunchly opposes a Gaza ceasefire, tweeted, “Whoever is pursuing an end to the war in Gaza will get a war in Judea and Samaria,” the Israeli government’s term for the West Bank.

A group of Israeli settlers rioted in the area of the attack Monday, torching Palestinian cars.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian affairs in Israel’s West Bank settlements, tweeted after the attack that Nablus and Jenin, large northern West Bank cities, “need to look like Jabaliya,” a city and refugee camp in Gaza that has been heavily damaged in Israel’s military campaign there. Last year, prior to Oct. 7, Smotrich had called on the IDF to wipe out another West Bank Palestinian town, but later walked that statement back, saying he had been misunderstood. On Monday, he also called for the dismantling of the P.A.

“The terror in Judea and Samaria and the terror from Gaza and Iran is the same terror — and it must be beaten,” he wrote. “Whoever relies on the Palestinian Authority to safeguard the security of Israel’s citizens will wake up to a morning when terrorists are again butchering Jewish residents.”