CH12: DM Katz warns Judea & Samaria on Brink of War

Peloni

Channel 12 reports that on Tuesday night, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz called an urgent meeting with local authorities in Judea & Samaria warning that they were on the brink of war with full scale preparations ongoing to meet the challenge.  At the meeting which included commander of the Central Command, Major General Avi Balut, and the coordinator of government operations in the territories, Major General Rasan Alian, Katz revealed that the original plans for October 7 included Hamas extending their invasion into Judea and Samaria.

Katz further detailed the measures which he had instructed to be carried out by the IDF, which included increased military activity in the region, extensive local counterterrrorism operations and stricter enforcement on traffic routes.  He emphasized that the defense establishment was aware of increases in attempts to smuggle advanced weaponry into the region, based on funding from both Iranian and radical Sunni axes.

Yisrael Gantz, the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, stated : “Iran has established itself in our region and over half a million citizens of the State of Israel are sitting on a ticking bomb. We must not continue to live here with the same perception that existed on October 6th. The security situation in Judea and Samaria is not a decree of fate, but the result of a policy that began with the Oslo Accords. Today is the time to change the directive and act with full force until terrorism in Judea and Samaria is eliminated.”

This meeting comes in the wake of a terrorist attack in which three Israelis were killed and eight injured by terrorists on Highway 55. The victims included Sergeant Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, whose son watched from the car as his father was murdered, as well as Rachel Cohen and Aliza Reiz.  Following the attack, regional leaders openly criticized the approach taken by the government, calling for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority whose infrastructure supports terrorism.