(JNS) Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday called for “the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” after the IDF overnight Tuesday launched a large-scale anti-terror operation in Judea and Samaria.
“This is a war in every respect and we must win it,” Katz tweeted.
“The IDF is working intensively starting tonight in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps to thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures that have been established there,” he said.
צה"ל פועל מהלילה בעוצמה במחנות הפליטים ג'נין וטול כרם לסיכול תשתיות טרור איסלמיות-אירניות שהוקמו במקום. איראן פועלת להקים חזית טרור מזרחית נגד ישראל ביו"ש, לפי מודל עזה ולבנון, באמצעות מימון וחימוש מחבלים והברחת נשק מתקדם מירדן.
עלינו לטפל באיום בדיוק כפי שמטפלים בתשתיות הטרור…
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 28, 2024
Iran is working “to establish an eastern terrorist front” in Judea and Samaria, said Katz, following its proxy model in Lebanon with Hezbollah and the Gaza Strip with Hamas, by “financing and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan.”
He continued: “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.”
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry has reported at least 11 deaths so far in the IDF operation—six in Jenin and five in Tubas, a city northeast of Nablus (Shechem).
The IDF operation was launched following an uptick in terrorist incidents in the region, including the murder of a Jewish guard 10 days ago.
Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been calling for the army to take action, warning that an Oct. 7-like attack into Israel’s central region is only a matter of time if the problem is allowed to fester.
Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, commenting on the IDF operation, said on Wednesday: “If we don’t do to Nur Shams what we did to Nuseirat [in Gaza], then God forbid, they’ll do to Bat Hefer [a village in central Israel] what they did to Be’eri [a kibbutz on the Gaza border decimated on Oct. 7].
“The time has come for us to face reality: Next to the beds of our children in Judea and Samaria, in Bat Hefer and Kfar Saba, lives a population that wants to kill Jews.”
