Netanyahu: Hebron neighborhood of gunmen in checkpoint attack to ...

Netanyahu: Hebron neighborhood of gunmen in checkpoint attack to be ‘destroyed’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel will “destroy” the Hebron neighborhood from which the gunmen who carried out today’s West Bank shooting attack hailed, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to the West Bank city with Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“First of all, we will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” Netanyahu says in a video released by his office. “But we are going to do something that has not been done until now: We will implement the successful and aggressive model we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds.”

Across the West Bank, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the IDF has cleared residents from refugee camps where terrorist groups have been operating.

“That is exactly what we will do here, in the neighborhood in Hebron from which the terrorists emerged,” Netanyahu continues. “We will evacuate the residents, we will go house to house, we will remove the weapons there as well, and all the terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed.”

Israel will also clear homes built without permits along roads in the West Bank, says Netanyahu, citing “a threat to our forces.”

Netanyahu says that the IDF has plans to carry out a major operation in the West Bank, the largest since Israel captured the territory in 1967: “The IDF is prepared to carry it out, and we will determine the timing, but it is on the way.”

Turning to Israel’s “heroic settlers” days before the general election, Netanyahu says they are “a model for the people of Israel; you are a model for the State of Israel.”

Katz says that today’s attack was part of what he and Netanyahu have been warning about in recent weeks.

“Iran’s Shiite axis and its proxies, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood axis, are planning to carry out attacks and terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians in order to sabotage and influence the upcoming elections in Israel,” he argues.

The Times of Israel Community.