Hamas was plotting a major attack on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Defense Minister Israel Katz revealed on Thursday during a meeting with the heads of regional councils. He also reiterated demands for a demilitarized southern Syria and noted that the government is considering allowing Syrian Druze to work in the Golan.
Hamas’s attack plans, Katz said, were discovered in files seized by the Israel Defense Forces.
“We discovered that Hamas planned to attack before 7/10 both in the communities of Samaria and on the [Green Line], and I am talking to you about files that were seized in this regard,” Katz said.
Said Katz, “The main infrastructure of terrorism in Judea and Samaria is the refugee camps. For more than two years, Iran has been pushing weapons, funding, and guidance into the camps to build battalions, build a force, and an eastern front against the settlement and the settlements along the [Green Line] against the State of Israel.”
He added, “I instructed the IDF, which is doing this very well, to continue in Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur a Shams, and beyond to expose the roads and take care of the houses that are under threat. And that is what is happening. Today, the Jenin refugee camp is empty of residents and the IDF is inside the camp, and I told them that [the soldiers] will not leave the camp for at least a year.”
The army launched an ongoing counterterror raid in the Jenin refugee camp on Jan. 19. It has since expanded to the Palestinian Authority city Tulkarem and an area of Samaria known as “the Five Villages.” The raids come on the heels of the Palestinian Authority’s failed crackdown in the Jenin refugee camp in January.
Katz also told the council officials that Israel would remain “indefinitely” inside a buffer zone in southern Syria. How long forces would stay, he said, “it depends on the situation – not time. We received the green light from the United States.”
He explained that Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, who is better known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, “traded in his trousers for suits, and he speaks well. We don’t trust him. We trust only the IDF.”
Regarding the Druze, “We are currently considering allowing those nearby to come and work in the Golan Heights on a daily basis and are preparing to provide them with assistance,” Katz said.
An estimated 700,000-800,000 Druze live in Syria, mostly in southwestern areas near Israel and Jordan. They make up around four percent of the Syrian population. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday insisted that Syrian Druze be protected in what analysts and Israeli Druze told The Press Service of Israel was a “significant shift” in Israeli policy.
“The message is unmistakable: Israel is positioning itself as the protector of southern Syria, especially the local Druze population,” Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a researcher at Tel Aviv’s Moshe Dayan Center told TPS-IL.
Israel’s Druze community of 152,000 trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Israeli Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” The Druze speak Arabic but are not Muslim and are very secretive about their religious beliefs.
The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opted to be part of Israeli society and established themselves in all areas of public life.
When Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. But attitudes have changed since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.
