Ex-Shin Bet official says that Israel must shift focus to fighting terror in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria are heavily armed with weapons smuggled into territory by Iran, a former intelligence official told Hebrew-language media on Wednesday.
Yossi Amrousi, who was a senior agent at the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, told Radio103 FM that he backs aggressive anti-terror raids in the region.
“We know that northern Samaria is flooded with Iranian weapons, weapons that are much more aggressive,” Amrousi said. He noted that many of the weapons include advanced “explosives, as we saw in the recent attack in which an IDF soldier was killed.”
Amrousi warned that residents of Israeli communities on the so-called “Seam line,” bordering PA-controlled cities, could potentially be subjected to an October 7th-style attack.
“If Hamas in Judea and Samaria had the same tools as Hamas in Gaza, what happened in Kfar Aza [a kibbutz targeted by Hamas] would happen in Kfar Saba [a Tel Aviv suburb in central Israel],” he said.
He encouraged the IDF to adopt tactics used to fight terror in Gaza, including “displacing the [civilian] population from a certain area, and going rom house to house until we reach the last of the terrorists.”
Amrousi said he was concerned that the release of terrorists, who are considered folk heroes among many Palestinians, will likely encourage future attacks.
“Zakaria Zubeidi is supposed to return to Jenin, and he is an inspiring figure” for terror, Amrousi said.
Terrorists could launch attack simply to celebrate the release of these prisoners, he stressed.
“The IDF and Shin Bet must be working at full strength. If the [released prisoners ] return to terror activity, they will have to be thwarted, eliminated or arrested,” he said.
He said that he supported the recently launched Operation Iron Wall, which targets terrorists and their infrastructure in Judea and Samaira.
However, Amrousi noted that “on the surface,” this operation does not appear “significantly different” from previous campaigns that failed to permanently root out the threat.
Image - Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90