Israel threatens ‘full-scale war’ against Palestinian Authority in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Sept 7: The Palestinian Authority will be attacked if Israeli forces or settlements are targeted in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister has warned.

The threat from Israel Katz came after a stabbing attack in the northern West Bank with the Israeli military saying it shot and killed the Palestinian assailant.

“If … the Palestinian Authority’s security mechanisms and related bodies initiate - or we know with certainty that they are about to initiate - a terror attack in the style of October 7 against forces and Jewish settlements - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the [army] to prepare for the opening of a full-scale war,” Katz said in a statement.

The campaign would target the “senior leadership and mechanisms” of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as well as “all terror infrastructure” in the territory, Katz said.

It would include “targeted killings of senior figures” and the “evacuation of residents from the cities and villages from which terror activity is carried out”, with a permanent Israeli military presence embedded in those areas, he added.

An Israeli lawmaker has denounced a threat by Defence Minister Israel Katz to launch a war against the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

“The message published by Defense Minister Katz is a deliberate attempt to ignite the territories and lead to a third intifada, for purely political reasons, and out of a desire to reach elections in a reality of active warfare,” said Gilad Kariv, a member of Knesset representing the Democrat Party, in a post on X.

“This is an irresponsible, reckless, and dangerous course of action that will cost the lives of many Israelis and Palestinians. The Israeli government has no moral or public mandate to drag us into bloody chaos in the territories.”

A top official in the US-backed “Board of Peace” says the failure to move forward in war-battered Gaza paired with rising violence in the occupied West Bank are making a two-state solution unviable.

NickolayMladenov, tasked by President Trump with implementing an October 2025 ceasefire plan, spoke at the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi.

“I would say that if Gaza continues the way it is now, or does not move into implementing … the plan that we have … the two-state solution will become practically impossible,” he said.�" AL JAZEERA