Hamas calls for escalation of terror attacks in Judea and Samaria

Hamas is calling for an escalation of terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security forces in Judea and Samaria, according to a social media post shared last week by the Judea and Samaria Situation Room (JSR), a centralized source for real-time updates on developments in the region.

According to JSR, a poster circulated on the Arab Telegram channel “Fida’i Filastin,” which is associated with propaganda from Hamas and other terrorist organizations, calls for increased attacks throughout Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in Israel.

The poster encourages both organized and lone-actor attacks, with the stated aim of undermining Israelis’ sense of security.

It features a quotation from Saleh al-Arouri, the former deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau who was killed in January 2024: “Strike them everywhere; they must lose their sense of security everywhere.”

The poster also depicts a terrorist holding a tactical knife alongside an inverted red triangle, a symbol used in Hamas propaganda to identify targets.

‘Well organized and well funded’

IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA), told JNS that Hamas maintains an extensive, well-funded terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria, with operatives continually planning additional attacks.

Hirsch pointed to dozens of Hamas-dominated organizations operating under the guise of charities that he said serve as conduits for funneling money to terrorism. He said these organizations also engage in da’wah, or Islamic religious outreach, which Hamas uses to indoctrinate Palestinians and promote its ideology.

“The Hamas infrastructure is well organized and well funded, and is constantly working and plotting to carry out additional terror attacks,” Hirsch said.

He added that the Palestinian Authority does nothing to confront Hamas, even in areas of Judea and Samaria under its security control.

Macron’s disputed claim

Binyamin Regional Council head and Yesha Council chairman Yisrael Ganz told JNS that Hamas maintains an active terrorist presence in Judea and Samaria, challenging French President Emmanuel Macron’s Sept. 22 remarks to the United Nations General Assembly, in which he downplayed the group’s activity in the region despite its long history of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians and security personnel.

In his speech, Macron declared that “Hamas has never been active in the West Bank,” prompting criticism from Israeli officials.

More than a month after the remarks, Ganz said Macron had yet to correct his statement or apologize to the families of Israelis murdered in Hamas attacks in Judea and Samaria.

Ganz pointed to several victims of Hamas terrorism, including French citizen Netanel Shukrun, a father of six who was murdered in September 2026 when a Hamas terrorist opened fire on his vehicle as he and his eldest son were leaving the Ein Raya spring near Neve Tzuf, where they had gone to immerse ahead of Yom Kippur. Shukrun was killed while his son witnessed the murder.

Among other victims cited by Ganz were Lucy Dee and her daughters, Maia and Rina, who were murdered in a shooting by Hamas terrorists near Hamra Junction in the Jordan Valley in April 2023 while traveling to Tiberias during Passover.

He also noted that in June 2023, two Hamas terrorists opened fire at the Hummus Eliyahu restaurant and an adjacent gas station near Eli in Samaria, killing Harel Masoud, Elisha Antman, Ofer Fayerman and Nachman Mordoff.

Ganz described Macron’s continued silence as “a moral disgrace and an intolerable display of contempt for the bereaved families and the victims of terrorism,” and called on the French president to retract his remarks and apologize to the families.

“We will not allow him to erase history or the blood of those who were murdered,” Ganz said.

‘Total struggle against Israel’

Dr. Yehuda Yemini, a political psychologist, Middle East expert and author of the new book It Was Never About Territory: Israel, Islam, and What Really Stands in the Way of Peace in the Middle East, told JNS that Hamas established terror cells in Judea and Samaria and eventually developed a local leadership of senior operatives that maintained contact with the group’s leadership in Gaza.

Following the 2004 death of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, that local leadership became increasingly independent in its operations, Yemini explained. However, he said, the ideology remained unchanged: a total struggle against Israel.

Yemini added: “The words of French President Macron that Hamas only operates in Gaza are clearly not true. In my opinion, Macron also knows the reality; he is simply trying to flatter the Islamists who are burning his country.”