Israel’s Security Cabinet met Tuesday in the shadow of two deadly terrorist attacks, both carried out within the past three days, that came as part of the rising wave of terror currently threatening the country.
Two Israeli men were murdered on Saturday in the Palestinian Authority town of Huwara, a terrorist hotbed that has been the scene of nearly a dozen such attacks since January.
On Monday, an Israeli kindergarten teacher was murdered and the man in whose car she was riding was seriously wounded in a similar terrorist shooting, this one near the Beit Hagai junction in the southern Hebron Hills.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved up a security cabinet meeting originally planned for September 10.
“The Security Cabinet made a series of decisions to strike at the terrorists and whoever dispatches them and authorized the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister to act accordingly,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement following the meeting.
“The Security Cabinet backs the commanders and soldiers of the IDF and the personnel of the security services in their actions against terrorist elements on behalf of the security of the citizens of Israel.”
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a situation assessment on the defense establishment’s activities in advance of the security cabinet meeting.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar attended the meeting along with Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir, IDF Military Intelligence Directorate chief Major-General Aharon Haliva and other senior defense officials.
Gallant commended Israeli security forces for their swift arrest of the two terrorists responsible for the murder of kindergarten teacher Batsheva Nigri, and for their “ongoing counterterrorism activities in Judea and Samaria,” the minister’s spokesperson said.
Since the start of 2023, 35 people have been murdered and 140 others wounded, including some with critical and serious injuries, in Palestinian Authority terrorist attacks.
