Israel will not allow Judea and Samaria to become like the Gaza Strip or Southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on Sunday amid another uptick in Palestinian terrorism in the region.
“Anyone who engages in terrorism like in Gaza will be treated like Gaza,” the minister told soldiers during a visit to the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces’ Judea and Samaria Division near Beit El in the Binyamin Region.
Katz said Israel would continue counter-terrorism operations to “cut off the arms of the Iranian octopus” and to maintain the security of Jewish communities in the region, according to a readout from his office.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 terrorist shooting that killed three Israelis in the Arab village of Al-Funduq, just west of Nablus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had approved “a series of additional offensive and defensive actions in Judea and Samaria.”
The terrorists who carried out that attack, killing Rachel Cohen, 73, Aliza Rice, 70, and Israel Police Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, 35, remain at large. Seven more people were wounded in the attack.
Katz condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Hamas terrorist group, as “an act of war” that would be “met with a decisive response.”
On Saturday evening, Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who were on their way to carry out a shooting attack. PIJ operatives Ahmad Zaqarna, 21, and Tariq Abu Zayd, 25, from Qabatiya in the Jenin area, were arrested in Nablus (Shechem) with two loaded M-16 rifles, ammunition and military gear in their possession.
According to the annual report published by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Dec. 31, the security forces thwarted more than 1,000 significant terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in 2024.
Most of the attacks involved firearms (689) and explosive devices (326), with others being stabbings, rammings, bombings and abductions.
