Settler leaders demand West Bank annexation, end to prisoner releases in territory after shooting attack
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Settlement leaders and organizations call for the annexation of West Bank settlements and an end to the release of Palestinian security prisoners into the West Bank following this morning’s shooting attack, and against the background of the ongoing hostage-prisoner release deal between Israel and Hamas.
“The Israeli government has a duty to decisively defeat Arab terrorism and to announce the application of Israeli sovereignty [in the West Bank], which will prevent the establishment of a terror state in the heart of the country,” says the Yesha Council, an umbrella body representing West Bank settlement municipal authorities.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council in the northern West Bank, calls for Israel to deal with Palestinian terrorism and paramilitary activity in the West Bank “exactly the same way as terrorism infrastructure was eliminated in Gaza,” apparently referring to the IDF’s efforts to destroy Hamas’s tunnel and bunker system and military installations in the Strip, which also caused widespread devastation to Gazan cities.
“I call on the prime minister and the defense minister to give instructions for the targeted elimination of all terror heads, and to stop any thought of releasing terrorists to Judea and Samaria,” adds Dagan, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.
Hundreds of convicted terrorists and other Palestinian security prisoners have been released back to the West Bank under the terms of the hostage-prisoner release deal with Hamas.
The comments by Yesha and Dagan come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington DC and meeting with US President Donald Trump, who did not rule out Israeli annexation moves in the West Bank when asked about the issue last night.