The Israel Defense Forces is putting together a bank of targets to be attacked in the case of an Oct. 7-style terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria, the country’s Israel Hayom daily reported on Wednesday morning.
The plan would see Israeli Air Force fighter jets, drones and helicopters bomb access roads to Jewish communities in the area, as well as other strategic targets, to slow down a mass terrorists’ advance.
The novel initiative comes in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, Israel Hayom reported. The IAF’s inadequate response to the invasion was part of the larger failure of the IDF that day.
The air force took a long time to understand what was happening on the Gaza border, and when it did, its response lacked effectiveness.
The IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division and the IAF, together with local security coordinators, are currently building plans for aerial defense of Judea and Samaria, according to the report. Military drills involving the air force have already been held in some communities, including Eli in Samaria.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
More than two in three Israeli Jews fear that Arab terrorists based in Judea and Samaria could launch a significant terrorist attack similar to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, according to a survey the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs published last month.
In September, Israeli authorities filed an indictment against a member of a terrorist squad based in Jenin who planned to infiltrate Jewish civilian communities in Samaria and carry out an Oct. 7-style attack.
The indictment accused Osama Bani Fadl and other terrorist operatives of making serious preparations for a mass slaughter of Jewish residents of Samaria, including by infiltrating towns with vehicles.
The terror cell reportedly also planned major attacks inside the town of Ma’ale Efraim in the Jordan Valley, and a drive-by shooting and large car bombing at the gas station outside Eli, a location that was targeted twice by Arab terrorist organizations over the past two years.
Arab terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
