Settler council heads demanded that the IDF crack down on Palestinian terrorism, with one leader calling for them to be killed in their beds.
“Only through strong deterrence and an aggressive attack against the terrorists will we reach the desired peace,” said Kiryat Arba and Hebron Council head Eliyahu Libman at a morning rally in front of Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Rosh Ha’ayin home.
It’s the fourth such event this week and the second in front of Gantz’s home.
"I demand from the security forces and the government to empower the IDF so that they kill the enemy in his bed before he carries out these [terror] attacks,"
Kiryat Arba and Hebron Council head Eliyahu Libman
Regional and local councils also held a strike. They have embarked on a campaign to push Gantz to embark on a military operation akin to the one held in 2002 called Defensive Shield.
“I demand from the security forces and the government to empower the IDF, so that they kill the enemy in his bed before he carries out these [terror] attacks,” Libman said.
Libman and other leaders spoke in response to increased West Bank violence
He and the other leaders spoke in response to rising West Bank violence, which has included shooting attacks against Israelis. The attacks come within the broader context in which the IDF is already engaged in Operation Break the Wave to root out Palestinian terror cells and to prevent any further attacks such as the ones that claimed 18 lives this year, both within sovereign Israel and in the West Bank.
Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz said that the government’s current policies had put lives in danger, including actions by Gantz and Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
“You showed weakness that set the area on fire. You talked to [Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen. You restored discourse about a Palestinian state; you gave motivation to our enemies and endangered us,” Ganz said.
“Do what is necessary so that every citizen can live here in peace.”
Shlomo Ne’eman, who heads the Yesha Council and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, charged that the defense minister didn’t see the residents of Judea and Samaria as equal to Israeli citizens and had frozen plans for 7,000 homes in Area C of the West Bank.
“The enemy has raised its head because our government allows them to,” Ne’eman said, charging that the PA was a “terrorist and dictatorial body that harms Arabs and shoots at Jews.
“We will continue the fight until security is restored to the region,” Ne’eman said.
“The Green Line is not the Red Line,” Kedumim Council head Hananal Dorani said. “The blood of the residents of the settlement is not worth less than the blood of the residents of Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Rosh HaAyin.”