Israeli officials condemned a series of terrorist attacks on Israelis in Judea and Samaria this week that killed two Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers and wounded several others.
President Reuven Rivlin said, “We will not let terrorism take hold, and we will thwart it and its perpetrators without compromise and with a firm hand.”
On Twitter, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote, “In the past week, Palestinian terrorists have killed or wounded 14 Israelis in multiple attacks. The Pal[estinian] Authority maintains laws that will compensate these terrorists and their families for their heinous acts. The P.A. can be a political body OR a sponsor of terror, not both.”
On Friday, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Beit El and attacked a soldier, stabbing him and pounding him with a rock, before fleeing. The soldier was evacuated in serious condition to a hospital in Jerusalem.
A day prior, on Thursday, Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis and seriously wounded two others at a Samaria bus stop.
In a separate shooting attack on a bus stop near the town of Ofra on Sunday, seven Israelis were wounded, including a pregnant woman whose baby died after being delivered by emergency Caesarean section following the attack.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin offered a plan of action, saying, “We will continue to pursue the despicable terrorists everywhere and at all times. At the same time, we will continue to build throughout all of Israel and to support [Israeli] settlement in general, and young settlements in particular.”
Culture Minister Miri Regev said, “The time has come to step things up a notch. We need to crush the head of the snake and personally hurt Hamas’s leaders. Only in this way will the terrorist organization’s leadership understand that the rules have changed.”
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, head of the National Union faction within the Habayit Hayehudi Party, was no less direct, calling for Israel “to act immediately and restore the roadblocks in Judea and Samaria, demolish terrorists’ homes and expel terrorists from Judea and Samaria.”
“Beyond that,” he continued, “I demand that the cabinet devise a swift solution to restore security to residents of Judea and Samaria.”
He said that if the cabinet did not meet these demands, the National Union faction would reconsider its path and may quit the coalition.
Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not mince words in his criticism of the government. “The terrorist attacks are a direct result of the government’s powerlessness in the war on Hamas in Gaza. I demand that the government immediately announce an end to all Qatari aid to the strip, including $15 million and the recent funding of fuel, and take difficult and painful steps against terror operatives in the [Gaza] Strip.”
