The Samaria Regional Council is intensifying its campaign demanding the launch of another Defensive Shield operation to stop what the council defines as the "Third Intifada" in Israel.
Today (Thursday) the council published ads showing the names of 24 people murdered in attacks carried out by terrorists from Judea and Samaria since the beginning of last year across the country - under the caption: "Government of Israel, this is not what a Defensive Shield looks like".
The head of the council, Yossi Dagan, said that "the citizens of Israel continue to suffer attacks every day, hour by hour, some of them are publicized in the media and some remain under the radar. They cannot wait for more people to be murdered until they embark on an operation that is clear to everyone that has to happen sooner or later. We are tired of counting the murdered. The operation is an essential thing that must happen. The citizens cannot stand alone at the front. The only answer is embarking on an operation, of course, it should not be exactly like Defensive Shield, because things have changed. I am not saying how to operate either, but it is clear that you have to go into proactive activity in northern Samaria, to close the security checkpoints, to catch the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority, to stamp out terrorism, and to confiscate weapons."
The council, led by Dagan, has been calling for over six months to launch an operation in northern Samaria to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian Authority. Since the beginning of the year and under the current government, 28 Israelis have been murdered in terrorist attacks. The Samaria Council announced that they will take a series of steps until the issue is resolved and stated: "Citizens will not stand alone at the front against terrorism."