Israeli political leaders reacted with fury following a deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem Monday, promising “severe and far-reaching consequences” for Palestinians accused of terror activity, including an expansion of military raids across the West Bank.
Visiting the scene of the attack, in which six people were killed and another 12 injured by suspected Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at a crowded junction in the capital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel in a “mighty war against terror” and said troops were putting a cordon on the West Bank towns near Ramallah where the suspects were thought to have set out from.
“A mighty war against terror is taking place on all fronts,” Netanyahu told reporters. “We are now pursuing and encircling the villages where the terrorists came from.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that anti-terror operations, which had concentrated on Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank in recent years, would expand to other areas of the West Bank.
“There will be severe and far-reaching consequences to this heinous attack,” he said, according to his office.
“Just as we defeated Palestinian terrorism in northern Samaria — we will soon do the same in other terror camps,” he added, using the biblical name for the northern West Bank.
Israeli troops over the past year have carried out major raids in Nablus, Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank to fight what they say is growing terror activity.
The military said earlier that troops were encircling the villages of Qatanna and Al-Qubeibah, where the two attackers were thought to have set out from.
The two were named in Palestinian media as Mohammad Taha and Muthanna Amro, both from Qatanna. Reports claimed that Israeli forces arrested the father of Amro, who was apparently a student at Birzeit University near Ramallah.
Both were killed during the attack by a soldier — a squad commander in the military’s new ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade — and an armed yeshiva student, also ultra-Orthodox.
The dead were named as Levi Yitzhak Pash, 57, Yaakov Pinto, 25, Yisrael Matzner, 28, and Rabbi Yosef David, 43, Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79, and Sarah Mendelson, 60.
Six of those injured remained in serious condition hours after the shooting, the deadliest terror attack to strike Jerusalem in years.
Netanyahu said a “war” on terror was ongoing in Jerusalem and the West Bank, “where we have acted with great force.”
“The Shin Bet and the IDF thwarted hundreds [of attacks], and the Israel Police also thwarted hundreds this year,” he said. “But unfortunately, not this morning.”
He also repeated a vow to destroy the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
“The fighting continues in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu continued, saying Israel “will destroy Hamas as we promised and free our hostages—all of our hostages.”
Speaking at a press conference alongside his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar cited the shooting as evidence for the need to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state under the Palestinian Authority.
“We are in a war with radical Islamist terrorism. Europe and the international community, every country, must now make a clear choice. Are they on Israel’s side, or are they on the side of the jihadists?” Sa’ar said. He pointed to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó before adding, “We know that Hungary stands with us.”
Pivoting to address numerous Western nations who are planning to recognize a Palestinian state this month, Sa’ar said: “We completely reject the current attempts to force Israel to accept a Palestinian terror state in the heart of our tiny land. It will not happen.”
“The terrorists who struck this morning came from the Palestinian Authority territories. The establishment of such a state would have only one goal: the elimination of the State of Israel,” he argued.
“It must be made clear — the Palestinian Authority has never severed its ties to terror,” he went on, backing this by repeating accusations he made alongside his Danish counterpart yesterday that the PA has failed to combat terrorism, address security concerns, or end incitement to terrorism in schools.
“Based on its actions, the PA does not deserve a state,” the foreign minister asserted, adding that recognizing one “will only destabilize the region,” and repeating his warning that such a move “will push us toward steps too.”
Visiting the site of the attack, at Ramot junction in a heavily ultra-Orthodox part of the capital, alongside Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, chair of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, credited a campaign he spearheaded after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack to distribute weapons to civilians for helping stop the attack.
“There was an act of heroism here, of a Haredi soldier from the [ultra-Orthodox] Hasmonean Brigades, and two Haredi men who received weapons as part of the weapons reform. I’ve said, weapons save lives, and we have to remember that. I am calling on the citizens of Israel — arm yourselves,” he said.
The minister attempted to draw a line between the attack and a court decision a day ago that found that terror detainees in Israeli prison were not being fed enough.
“Just yesterday, the High Court eased the conditions of Nukhbas, and found that we must intervene over their menu,” he said, referring to members of an elite Hamas unit.
“Friends, this is not a game. When the High Court does something like this, it sends a message to terrorists. I say to the judges of the court: “Don’t do this. Stop this,” the minister continued, in comments that the court system itself later rebuked him for.
Appealing to Netanyahu — who stood stone-faced beside him — Ben Gvir vowed to defy the court. “The conditions in prison will remain as they are; it adds deterrence,” he said.
Far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz, the sole MK belonging to the anti-LGBT Noam party, also placed blame for the attack on the judiciary, calling it “a direct response” to Sunday’s High Court ruling.
Ben Gvir also called for the enforcement of a law, passed in November 2024, to expel from Israel family members of terrorists, including Israeli citizens, if they had advance knowledge of the attack and either failed to report it, or expressed support for any act of terrorism or terror organization.
“I’ve signed, in recent weeks, 35 orders like this, and I believe the new Interior Minister Yariv Levin will approve those requests,” Ben Gvir said.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch, of Netanyahu’s Likud party, also backed the expulsion law, saying in a statement after the shooting that Israel “must move from defense to deterrence” by “eliminating the terrorists and deporting their families immediately.”
Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party said after the attack that it intends to raise the issue of implementing a death penalty for terrorists next week in the Knesset National Security Committee, chaired by party MK Zvika Fogel.
“A death penalty for terrorists is what every terrorist who goes out to murder Jews deserves. Until the law passes, prison conditions for terrorists have been toughened,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
“This is the first step toward restoring deterrence. We will continue to advance the law until its final approval,” said fellow Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, the bill’s sponsor.
Responding to the terror attack, Har-Melech wrote on X: “There is no difference between Gaza and Jenin and between Khan Younis and Ramallah. In every place, the enemy wants only one thing, and that is to kill us.
“In the face of such a reality, the only solution is: conquest, expulsion, and settlement. Only in this way will we restore security to the people of Israel and uproot terrorism,” she wrote.
“Nazis are Nazis are Nazis,” posted fellow Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer. “Destroy and eliminate [them], there is no other way.”
MK Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who also visited the site of the attack with Netanyahu and Ben Gvir, earlier took to X to call for “vengeance” over the attack.
“Nazis are the same Nazis everywhere and need to receive the same treatment. There is no coexistence with them,” he wrote.
More moderate ministers in Netanyahu’s government also pointed to the incident as an argument for hawkish security policies.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said the attack underscored the “importance of arming civilians,” because increasing the number of gun-carrying Israelis will help stop such attacks and minimize casualties.
Economy Minister and former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat likewise blamed the PA, declaring that the time has come to shut down the Palestinian governing body.
“The blood of the murdered is on the hands of the Palestinian Authority, which funds and encourages terrorism. It is time to dismantle the Palestinian Authority,” Barkat tweeted, commending the ultra-Orthodox soldier who “eliminated the terrorists and prevented an even greater disaster.”
The Palestinian Authority presidency, meanwhile, issued a statement of condemnation that referred to the attack, albeit indirectly.
“The presidency affirms its stance in rejecting and condemning any harm to Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and rejects all forms of violence, regardless of their source,” the statement said.
The presidency further stated that, “Security and stability will not be achieved without an end to the occupation,” and that the realization of the Palestinian people’s rights in an independent state “is the sole guarantee for ending the cycle of violence in the region.”
President Isaac Herzog, refraining from any political appeal, issued a statement lamenting a “painful and difficult morning” and offering a message of strength following the deadly shooting attack at the Ramot Junction in Jerusalem.
“Innocent citizens, children and adults, were murdered and injured in cold blood on a bus in the streets of a city at the hands of evil terrorists,” he wrote on X, offering condolences to the families of the five murdered victims — the toll has since risen to six — and wishing a full recovery to those injured.
“The shocking attack reminds us time and again that we are fighting absolute evil,” he continued, adding that “The world must understand what we are facing. It must also internalize that terrorism will never subdue us and will not achieve its goals. The people of Israel are strong. The people of Israel live.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid expressed support for Israeli security forces “in their efforts to thwart terrorism” following the attack. In a post on X, Lapid sent his “deep condolences to the families of the murdered” and wished for “a speedy recovery to the wounded.”
Later, as Ben Gvir’s comments laying blame on the High Court circulated, Lapid took to social media to denounce him and the prime minister.
“The opposition refrained from blaming the government for the terrible attack. We decided not to act as they did when we were leading the country in far safer days. Perhaps it is a political mistake, but in the face of the victims and the pain, we will not be like them,” the opposition leader wrote on X.
“But Netanyahu and Ben Gvir will never change. While the victims lie before us, the government is already blaming the judicial system…instead of taking responsibility.
“All that is left for us is to repeat what Netanyahu and Ben Gvir said time and again during the days of the ‘government of change’: You are responsible, this is on your account. You promised security to the citizens of Israel, and you have failed.”
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman and The Democrats head Yair Golan both praised the IDF soldier who opened fire at the two terrorists, noting that he is a squad commander in the military’s new ultra-Orthodox brigade, with Liberman calling him a “hero.”
Both Liberman and Golan are fierce critics of the wider Haredi community’s refusal to enlist in the IDF.
The soldier “heroically engaged the enemy and acted to neutralize the terrorists,” tweeted Golan, pointing out that the soldier is Haredi and adding that Israel “will reach those responsible for the attack and those who sent them – and we will bring them to justice with full force.”
Leon Kraiem contributed to this report.