‘Our country, our control’: Visiting West Bank, PM warns against attacking Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that Israel is prepared for potential attacks in the West Bank, including the possibility of Palestinian Authority security forces turning their weapons against Israeli troops.

“Our enemies are thinking about testing us in these days leading up to the elections,” Netanyahu reiterates during a visit to the area around the territory’s border near Tulkarem, alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior security officials.

“We are prepared for any scenario, including what is known as a ‘turning of guns,’” he says, warning that Israel would respond to an attack by the Palestinian forces with “a level of force you have never imagined.”

PA security forces have long coordinated on West Bank security with Israel and attacks on Israelis by their members are rare.

Netanyahu also vows that the IDF will maintain control of the area around Tulkarem, where Israeli forces have conducted extensive counterterrorism operations.

“There will be no Arab army west of the Jordan River,” he declares, referring to the area encompassing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

“We are guarding from the Jordan River to the sea. Our country, our control,” he says.

The area around Tulkarem is especially sensitive because of its proximity to the city of Netanya and Israel’s heavily populated coastal plain, where the country narrows to roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) between the West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea.