June 21, 2023
Following the deadly shooting near the settlement of Eli on Tuesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “all options are open.”
Netanyahu’s remarks came during a security assessment at the Israel Defense Forces Command Headquarters on Tuesday evening.
“We have already proven in the past few months that we will settle the score with all the murderers, with no exceptions,” the prime minister said in a video statement.
He continued with a warning: “All those who come after us—all the options are open. We will continue to fight terror at full power and we will defeat it.”
Netanyahu faces increasing pressure from coalition partners to engage in a larger military campaign in the territories of Judea and Samaria as the wave of violence which began last spring continues to escalate.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir spoke to reporters at the scene of the shooting, where he called on Netanyahu to initiate a military operation.
“The time has come to launch a military operation in Judea and Samaria, to return to targeted assassinations from the air, to bring down buildings, to erect roadblocks, to expel terrorists and to finish passing the death penalty for terrorists law,” Ben Gvir told the reporters.
Ben Gvir’s calls for action were echoed by other coalition members, including those in Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Knesset Member Yuli Edelstein, the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said “Judea and Samaria are not a no-man’s land and we have already proven that the Israeli outlook has shifted from containment to a sharp and clear attack on the nests of terror.”
Jewish Power party Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech addressed the Knesset plenum on Tuesday evening.
“We are demanding a military operation, if someone has yet to understand why the reality requires it, they received an answer today,” she said during an emotional speech.
Benny Gantz, former Israeli defense minister and head of the National Unity party, said his party “will back every correct decision of the government” in fighting terrorism.
Avigdor Liberman, head of the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, called for action—not just in Judea and Samaria but against the leaders of the terror groups.
“The time has come for the government of Israel to wake up and to launch a wide military operation in Judea and Samaria, and not just against bottom feeders and junior field operatives but against the perpetrators of the terrorist wave who sit in Gaza and enjoy the immunity that Netanyahu granted them,” he said.
Some Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria were not willing to wait for an official government response.
Some they took to a Palestinian olive grove near the settlement of Eli and set fire to the trees.
Other settlers reportedly entered nearby Palestinian towns, threw stones and set fire to property and cars. According to Ynet News, Israeli security forces arrested three settlers in connection with the rampages.
“This kind of behavior just provokes more terror and is a burden on security forces who are stretched to the limit in the area,” a security officer told Ynet.
He said such behavior distracts the IDF and security forces from focusing on thwarting acts of terror.
“The IDF is dealing with nationalistically motivated criminal acts instead of operating against the terrorists,” he said. “Just in the past few days, some terror suspects who were arrested said they set out to launch attacks to avenge the burning of homes and cars in Huwara last February.”
The security officer was referring to the estimated 400 settlers who entered the town of Huwara and set fire to cars and buildings following the killing of the Yaniv brothers in February. {eoa}
This article originally appeared on ALL ISRAEL NEWS and is reposted with permission.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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