Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich on Friday responded to the security escalation in Judea and Samaria, urging a decisive response.
Speaking ahead of a Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meeting, he said, "The enemy has been raising its head in Judea and Samaria in recent days, and what is needed is immediate, sharp, determined, and unequivocal action by the IDF."
Smotrich noted by name the villages of Tal and Iraq Burin, located near Havat Gilad and the site of Friday morning's terror attack in which Benayahu Melet was murdered, as well as the village of Beit Furik near Havat Avraham, where Itamar Cohen was stabbed on Thursday.
"These are villages of terrorists, from which terrorism emerges again and again and again," Smotrich said. "They should look exactly like the refugee camps in Shechem (Nablus - ed.) and Tulkarm."
Smotrich urged evacuating the villages' civilian population "for their own protection" while carrying out what he described as a comprehensive operation to destroy terrorist infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in order to restore deterrence and security. He also said the IDF should establish defensive buffer zones around communities, roads, and farms to improve security for residents.
In addition, Smotrich said he intends to ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve the establishment of a new community at the Sela outpost, near the site of Friday's deadly shooting attack. To do so, he said, the area should be transferred from Area B to Area C, "take responsibility for it, and allow a community to be established there."
"That is our fitting Zionist response to the terrorists, to terrorism, and to the desire to undermine our hold on areas of our land," Smotrich said..