Gallant: IDF ‘mowing the lawn’ with West Bank ops, but will eventually need to ‘pull out the roots’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the military is “mowing the lawn” during an ongoing major operation against terror groups in the West Bank, but will need eventually to “pull out the roots.”

“The rise of terror in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is an issue that we need to be focused on at every moment. The process is an attack to prevent terror. We are mowing the lawn, [but] the moment will also come when we will pull out the roots, that must be done,” he says following an assessment in the West Bank with senior IDF officers.

“The rise [in terror] that comes in the form of car bombs and shooting everywhere, these are things that need to be put to an end,” Gallant says.

“These terror organizations that call themselves by all kinds of names, in Nur Shams, or in Tulkarm, or in Far’a, or in Jenin, they (the terror groups) should be wiped out. Every such terrorist should be eliminated, [or] if they surrender, arrest them,” he adds.