{"id":560544,"date":"2026-07-26T16:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/560544\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T16:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:00:19","slug":"netanyahu-vows-expanded-operations-against-west-bank-terrorist-strongholds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/560544\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu vows expanded operations against West Bank ‘terrorist strongholds’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed at a cabinet meeting on Sunday to expand operations against Palestinian \u201cterrorist strongholds\u201d in the West Bank, after a deadly Friday shootout sparked when settlers illegally entered a Nablus-area village.<\/p>\n

Katz took Democrats party chief Yair Golan to task for blaming the gunfight<\/a> on settler extremists and the government. Other ministers at the meeting called for a harsh response against Palestinians, and for the Israel Defense Forces to give troops greater leeway to open fire, according to leaks carried by Hebrew media.<\/p>\n

The weekly cabinet meeting was held in a secure underground location for unspecified security reasons, amid concern of an escalation in the war with Iran, even after the US over the weekend paused its nightly strikes on the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Netanyahu said that during his trip to the US this week he and US President Donald Trump would discuss \u201call the issues currently on the agenda, including the situation in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is set to depart Monday and attend the funeral of US Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on July 11.<\/p>\n

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The hawkish South Carolina Republican was \u201cone of Israel\u2019s greatest friends since the state\u2019s establishment, and it is fitting that we pay him this honor,\u201d Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington on July 24, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

Netanyahu also said he spoke over the phone Saturday night with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promised to act against the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

The Hague-based court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, \u201cendangers justice around the world and also threatens the right of democratic, sovereign states to exercise their sovereignty,\u201d the prime minister charged.<\/p>\n

He accused the court of \u201ctrying to subordinate [democratic states\u2019] security to the decisions of corrupt bureaucrats in The Hague.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s prosecutor Karim Khan, whom ICC members voted to remove<\/a> Friday after an ex-aide accused him of sexual assault, had issued the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant \u201cto divert attention, to rally all of Israel\u2019s enemies around him, and essentially to create a protective shield for himself,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat shield has now been torn away, exposing both his true motivation and the lack of justice and deep corruption not only in the Prosecutor\u2019s Office but throughout the International Criminal Court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan talks before convening the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, March 14, 2025. (AP\/Peter Dejong)<\/p>\n

Turning to IDF operations in the West Bank, Netanyahu said that \u201cthe instructions we gave were to enter villages, search them, seize weapons, and make arrests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel is \u201cprepared to act more broadly against terrorist strongholds,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Katz said that in addition to ongoing operations, \u201csimilar measures are now being considered by identifying where terrorist activity is being organized and where we need to strike in order to disrupt it and prevent it from continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defense minister also accused Democrats leader Golan of disseminating a \u201cblood libel\u201d against settlers. The former deputy IDF chief had said at his party\u2019s campaign launch<\/a> on Saturday night that Netanyahu and Katz were purposely fomenting chaos in the West Bank ahead of Israel\u2019s October 27 election, and that the blood of soldiers who would be killed as a result was on their hands.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLeft: Yair Golan, chairman of The Democrats party, meets with newly elected party members a day after The Democrats party primaries, in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 21, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90); Right: Defense Minister Israel Katz attends a conference at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, June 17, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, I was troubled, though unsurprised, to hear someone who was once a senior IDF officer and is now one of the leaders of the opposition \u2014 perhaps even their candidate for defense minister, judging by the way he speaks \u2014 publicly cursing the prime minister and me, and blaming the residents of Judea and Samaria for Palestinian terrorism,\u201d Katz said, using a biblical name for the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaying such things about the settlers,\u201d said Katz, \u201cwho today help protect all the population centers in Israel, and saying such things about our soldiers, only makes our duty to suppress terrorism even greater.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shootout in the Palestinian village of Tell on Friday claimed the lives of\u00a0an IDF soldier and a member of the civil defense squad from the neighboring settlement of Havat Gilad, as well as those of\u00a0four Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Pro-settler politicians blamed the Israelis\u2019 deaths on what they described as excessively strict IDF guidelines on opening fire.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA Palestinian in seen confronting settlers with a pole during a deadly clash near the West Bank village of Tell on July 24, 2026. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

In quotes from the cabinet meeting leaked to Hebrew outlets, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that following the Friday gunfight, Israel had to \u201cbring back targeted assassinations, change the guidelines on opening fire and let IDF soldiers open fire in incidents like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other ministers reportedly seconded the call, while IDF Brig. Gen. Yogev Bar Sheshet, the deputy defense establishment comptroller, said that \u201cin incidents where there is a mixture of terrorists and civilians,\u201d it was difficult for soldiers to tell \u201cwho is a terrorist and who is a civilian.\u201d<\/p>\n


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There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed at a cabinet meeting on Sunday to expand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,85,46,2723,43,77,22171],"class_list":["post-560544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-news","tag-west-bank","tag-yair-golan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}