The shooting attack near the eastern gate of the Shavei Shomron community drew sharp responses from politicians and a settlement organization. The injured man was serving as a guard protecting the thousands of adults and children in the Samaria March in support of the settlement movement.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, responded to the shooting by blaming the government for what he called, a deterioration of the security situation.
“This government’s weakness is making us bleed. We have been begging, warning, and shouting for over a month: ‘Close the checkpoints, collect the weapons, stop the incitement, take military action against the Palestinian Authority that is fueling a wave of terrorism here.’”
"The lives of terrorists and their supporters in Nablus [Shechem] seem to be worth more than the blood of the citizens of the State of Israel. And we pay for that with the blood of citizens, the blood of soldiers, and the blood of security guards at the checkpoints. We demand that this government come to its senses. It needs to go home because it is abandoning the lives of Israeli citizens and soldiers. Change the paradigm; stop preferring the lives of our enemies over the lives of Israeli citizens,” Dagan said.
The leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich, responded to the attack while attending the Samaria March: "First of all, we wish a speedy recovery to the wounded soldier. And I call from here to all Israelis, come here en masse, to Samaria, to Binyamin, and to Judea. We are marching and connecting to the Land of Israel.”
“We will not break or surrender to anyone or to any terrorism. We will not be defeated and our hold on the Land of Israel will not be compromised. I am strengthening the security forces that are now chasing the squad and I hope that they will be caught and eliminated. Therefore, strengthen our soldiers, strengthen the settlements.''
MK Orit Strook, also a member of Religious Zionism, asked about barriers preventing attacks: “How many checkpoints actually checked the armed terrorist as he was on his way to the scene of the attack? And when he was on his way back?”
“On the other hand,” she continued, “How many barriers block yeshiva students on their way from that very place to their place of study every day?”
“We will pray for the healing of the wounded. And also for replacing the security guard, and changing the crooked checkpoint policy,” she concluded.
The Nahala Settlement Movement also responded: “The shooting attack against IDF soldiers who guarded the settlement march between Shavei Shomron and Sebastia is a direct result of the damage inflicted on the settlements and it joins a chain of severe shooting attacks that have miraculously ended without casualties.”
“Defense Minister Benny Gantz's policy of going easy on the Arabs and restricting the Jews must change. The roadblocks deployed on the road to Chomash should be placed at the entrance to the villages around it inhabited by killers, and the forces that are busy preventing Jews from entering the settlement of Evyatar should be directed instead toward the many terrorists who pass through the areas without fear.”
“The right-wing government that will be formed is obliged to cancel the “Withdrawal Law”, to renew the Jewish settlements in northern Samaria; Ganim, Kidim, Chomash, Sha-Noor, and many other towns.”