Smotrich urges West Bank crackdown ‘even if it means Tulkarem will look like Gaza’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, reacts to the outrage caused by Palestinian terrorists’ gunfire from the West Bank’s Tulkarem toward the Israeli town of Bat Hefer in the central Sharon region, arguing that West Bank terrorists “must be fought like in Gaza.”

“We must not allow them to do in the Sharon what they did on October 7″ near the Gaza border,” Smotrich tweets. “Terror needs to be uprooted anywhere, even if it means Tulkarem will look like Gaza looks today.”

The far-right minister says he has spoken with Emek Hefer Regional Council head Galit Shaul and agreed to hold a meeting in the coming days along with other officials “to meet the immediate needs as a result of the worsening of the threat to the residents.”

He adds that the phenomenon is further proof that a future Palestinian state would pose “an existential threat to the State of Israel.”