The first step would see Israeli forces “enter the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure,” he said.
The military would apply a model previously used in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, he said, the scene of a large-scale operation launched in January 2025 that the United Nations said forcibly displaced thousands.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from “plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres through a spokesman voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on all sides.
“EXACTLY LIKE GAZA”
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position within the defence ministry, called for a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza”.
He said authorities were “sending an unequivocal message to our enemies: if you mess with the Jews, you will pay a very painful price.”
National Security Minister and far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir said the Ramallah-based “Palestinian Authority must be dismantled”.
“It is impossible for there to be an authority within Judea and Samaria that incites murder, calls for murder, and works for murder,” he told reporters.
No evidence suggests that the Palestinian Authority – which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank – was connected to Friday’s attack.
