(March 26, 2025 / JNS) Avida Bachar, who lost his wife and 15-year-old son in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist assault on Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border, called on the Israeli government to extend “full sovereignty” over Judea and Samaria to prevent another Oct. 7-like attack.

“We must have full sovereignty here. If we don’t, another Oct. 7 is just a matter of time,” said the farmer, who lost a leg when a Hamas terrorist shot him during the cross-border assault.

Bachar made the comment on Wednesday during a tour of Samaria with Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council.

“I wouldn’t consider anyone else—just what’s good for us, generations of the Jewish people,” Bachar said, per local media. “We have no better place to live than here. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s ours. It is our duty to protect this place.”

“We don’t know when the volcano will erupt—but it will erupt. This is the realization from this event and from the small country we need to protect. We need to safeguard this land so no one else will be there,” he said. “Sovereignty will give us maximum security.”

Bachar also addressed the issue of encouraging Palestinian Arabs to leave Judea, Samaria and Gaza, noting that Jerusalem’s policy toward the issue must change.

“It can be called by many names, but in the end, those who aren’t with us should leave here—voluntarily or not,” he said.

Dagan told Hebrew media in Samaria that “if we want to prevent another event like Oct. 7, we need to apply sovereignty to the communities here and act as a protective shield for all the cities in Israel’s central region.”

“We need to encourage emigration so that anyone who wants to leave can leave,” Dagan said. “The situation must end with a clear declaration of sovereignty, because victory is in the land.”

On Oct. 7, Bachar’s wife and son were murdered in front of his eyes after Hamas terrorists overwhelmed them in their two-story home in Be’eri, which was utterly gutted, he told JNS in April.

The farmer underwent months of recovery in a hospital after his leg was amputated.

Kibbutz Be’eri, which was home to 1,200 people living less than three miles from the Gaza border, lost about 10% of its residents in the Oct. 7 massacre, during which 32 kibbutz members were taken captive.

More than two in three Israeli Jews fear that Palestinian terrorists based in Judea and Samaria could launch a significant terrorist attack similar to the Oct. 7 massacre, according to a survey published last month.

At the same time, 58% percent of Israeli Jews believe that civilian communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the entire country.