Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin NetanyahuFlash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered on Sunday night that steps be taken immediately to resettle the Beit Hamachpela in Hevron, following the terror attack in which an IDF soldier was murdered by Palestinian Authority Arab snipers.

"Whoever tries to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite,” Netanyanu declared. “We will continue to fight terrorism and hit the terrorists with one hand, and we will continue to strengthen the settlement enterprise with the other hand.”

Earlier Sunday evening, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett asked cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblitt to immediately approve the entry of Jews into Beit Hamachpela, saying, "We know how to build and settle. Not to kill. This would be the appropriate Zionist answer [to the terrorism].”

Beit Hamachpela in Hevron is a home that was purchased last year from an Arab by 15 Jewish families. The families moved in soon after the sale, fearing the building – uninhabited – would be occupied by local Arabs before the Civil Administration validated their purchase.

In August of 2012, then Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the removal of the residents who purchased the building despite a request by Netanyahu to allow a court to determine the course of events.

The military appeals court has since accepted the appeal of the Jews who bought the property, ruling that the purchase was made according to law. Following the ruling, MKs urged the government to allow the Jews to return to the home.