From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 6, 2025
Smotrich: Nablus, Jenin need to resemble Gaza’s Jabalia after deadly West Bank terror attack
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
After three people were killed in a terror shooting in Al Funduq in the northern West Bank, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that the Palestinian village, along with the cities of Nablus and Jenin, should be treated like the Gazan city Jabalia in order to prevent further attacks.
“Al Funduk, Nablus and Jenin need to look like [Gaza’s] Jabalia so that Kfar Saba does not become Kfar Aza, God forbid,” he says, naming a central Israel town and a Gaza border community hit hard on October 7, respectively.
“The terrorism in Judea and Samaria and the terrorism from Gaza and Iran is the same terrorism – and it must be defeated,” he says, using the Biblical term for the West Bank. “Those who trust the Palestinian Authority to maintain the security of Israeli citizens are waking up to a morning when terrorists are again slaughtering Jewish residents.”
Smotrich demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convene “an urgent cabinet meeting today to discuss a change in outlook and the real eradication of terrorism in Judea and Samaria.”
Israel’s failed pre-October 7 security “concept is still here and it is being paid for with precious blood,” the far-right minister declares in the statement.
According to a December report in the Haaretz daily, the IDF estimates that around 70 percent of the buildings in Jabalia in north Gaza have been destroyed during the ongoing military operation there.
