Israel threatens PA war if Oct 7-style attack planned

Israel threatened a full-scale war against the Palestinian Authority on Monday if it determined that PA security forces or related bodies were preparing an October 7-style attack against Israeli forces or Jewish settlements.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and he had instructed the Israeli military to prepare for such a campaign if PA bodies initiated such an attack, or if Israel knew with certainty that they were about to do so.

Katz said the campaign would target the Palestinian Authority's senior leadership and mechanisms, as well as what he called terror infrastructure in the West Bank. He said it would include targeted killings of senior figures, evacuations from cities and villages from which terror activity is carried out, and a permanent Israeli military presence in those areas.

Katz said the operation would emulate the Israeli military's so-called security zones in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

The remarks came after a stabbing attack in the northern occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said it shot and killed the Palestinian assailant. Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said a man in his 20s was taken to hospital in a moderate to serious condition with multiple stab wounds.

Netanyahu praised the soldiers who killed the assailant and said: "No terrorist can hide." Hamas called for an escalation of resistance against Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Violence has increased in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. AFP, citing official Israeli figures, says the Hamas attack killed 1,221 people and militants took 251 hostages into Gaza, including 44 already dead. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's offensive has killed at least 73,651 people; the ministry operates under Hamas authority and its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.