Netanyahu: IDF Plan Ready If PA Forces Turn Guns on Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the IDF has given him and the Defense Minister a plan for a scenario in which Palestinian Authority security forces turn their weapons against Israel ahead of the elections. Arutz Sheva reported that he made the remarks while touring the seam line in Samaria.

The Defense Minister and senior security officials joined Netanyahu on the visit. Commanders briefed him on the protection of communities along the seam line and on counterterrorism operations in Palestinian villages. These operations include arresting terrorists and seizing weapons.

Netanyahu confirmed that security alerts are in effect in the area. He also issued a direct warning to Israel's enemies.

"Our enemies are thinking of testing us in these days leading up to the elections. I warn them that we are prepared for every scenario, including what is known as a 'turning of the guns.'"

He was blunt about the military's answer to that contingency. "The IDF presented the Defense Minister and me with a powerful and forceful plan," Netanyahu said. "In such a case, I would not advise our enemies to test us. You will encounter a level of force here that you have never dreamed of."

Netanyahu also pointed to the site behind him. "Behind me is the former Tulkarm refugee camp," he said. "It was a terrorist stronghold. The IDF entered, cleared it out on our instructions, and did an excellent job, not just here."

He then turned to proceedings before the High Court (Bagatz) over returning residents to the area. "I heard that someone in the Supreme Court says the residents should be brought back here. These are not residents; they are terrorists," he said. "There will be no Arab army west of the Jordan River. There will be the Israel Defense Forces."

The prime minister stressed how close the area lies to Israel's heartland. "We are minutes from Netanya, minutes from the coastline," he said. "Israel's narrow waist will no longer be narrow. We are protecting the area from the Jordan River to the sea. Our country, our control."

He ended his remarks by addressing new settlement in the area. "We are establishing communities here, more than 104, and many farms," Netanyahu said.

On October 6, Defense Minister Israel Katz told the cabinet that the IDF was preparing for a scenario in which the PA's security apparatus and its affiliated Tanzim groups attack Israeli residents and troops in Judea and Samaria and in seam line communities. In that event, Katz said, Israel would declare war on the Palestinian Authority. The IDF would then launch what he called a "short and intense" offensive with ground and air forces and "special means," under a plan that he and Netanyahu had formulated and approved. Katz said that plan includes targeted killings and the expulsion of senior officials. It also includes destroying weapons, evacuating residents on a large scale and destroying terrorist infrastructure in the cities and refugee camps.