Israel threatens Palestinian Authority leadership with all-out war over West Bank security threats

 Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Monday that Israel would launch an “all-out war” against the Palestinian Authority if its leadership or security apparatus prepares an attack similar to the 7 October 2023 assault launched from Gaza.

In a statement issued following a stabbing incident near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the military to prepare for targeted strikes against senior Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership and security forces.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I instructed the IDF to prepare to launch an all-out war against senior officials and mechanisms of the Palestinian Authority, the bodies associated with them, and against all terrorist infrastructure," Katz said.

The defence minister outlined plans that would include targeting high-ranking PA figures, liquidating armed groups, and ordering civilian evacuations from West Bank towns and villages used to launch attacks. Katz added that Israeli forces would retain control over evacuated zones, drawing parallels to security buffers created in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

The announcement came shortly after Israeli forces cordoned off several villages in the northern West Bank following a stabbing attack at Maoz Yehuda Farm near Usarin, south of Nablus. An Israeli civilian was moderately to seriously wounded before soldiers pursued and killed the Palestinian suspect.

Israeli political leadership has increasingly focused on the West Bank, where military operations and military-enforced raids have escalated over recent months. While the Palestinian Authority maintains limited civil and administrative control over parts of the West Bank, Israeli authorities have repeatedly accused its security services of failing to restrain armed factions or complicity in violent acts.

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah did not immediately issue a formal response to the latest statements from Israeli defence officials.