Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz (AA Photo)
Israel on Sept. 7 threatened a “full-scale war” against the Palestinian Authority if it prepared an attack against Israeli forces or settlements similar to the one launched by Hamas from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
The remarks from Defense Minister Israel Katz came after a stabbing attack in the northern occupied West Bank, with the Israeli military saying it had shot and killed the Palestinian assailant.
Violence has surged in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, after Hamas’s October 2023 attack sparked the war in Gaza. Recent months have seen soaring attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, often with little or no legal consequence.
“If... the Palestinian Authority’s security mechanisms and related bodies initiate, or we know with certainty that they are about to initiate, a terror attack in the style of Oct. 7 against Israel Defense Forces and Jewish settlements, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to prepare for the opening of a full-scale war,” Katz said in a statement from his office.
Katz said the military campaign would target the “senior leadership and mechanisms” of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as well as “all terror infrastructure” in the territory.
He said it would include “targeted killings of senior figures” and the “evacuation of residents from the cities and villages from which terror activity is carried out,” with a permanent Israeli military presence in those areas.
Katz said the operation would emulate the so-called “security zones” in which the Israeli military currently operates in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
