(Jan. 22, 2025 / JNS) The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday responded to reports of a possible armed drone discovered outside the Jewish town of Yitzhar in Samaria, a military spokesperson told JNS.

Troops were called to the scene after residents found “a suspicious object in the form of a drone,” the IDF spokesperson confirmed.

The soldiers moved to close the area until bomb disposal experts could be brought in to neutralize the object, according to the military.

According to the Israel Hayom daily, the incident marked the second time a suspicious drone has been found in the vicinity of Yitzhar. The previous UAV was found to be carrying a mock bomb, residents said.

Locals told the newspaper that the drone discovered on Wednesday appeared to have been launched from the Palestinian village of Madama, less than a mile north of Yitzhar.

The Fighting for Life NGO, which organizes protests against terrorism in Samaria, said that the only explanation for the incident was that terrorists were training for annother Oct. 7-style attack.

“It starts with failed attempts, but even the first rockets were flying tubes that we laughed at, and the enemy learned,” the NGO said. “What started as rock-throwing terror from the village on the nearby road quickly turned into explosive drones—and who knows what else the enemy is planning.”

The organization called on the military to enter the villages surrounding Yitzhar, “evacuate the terrorist population and to ensure that no infrastructure that terrorists could one day use is left standing.”

On Tuesday, the IDF launched “Operation Iron Wall” against Iranian-backed Palestinian terror organizations in Jenin in northern Samaria.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that Jerusalem would “not allow the arms of the Iranian octopus and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of the [Israeli] residents and establish an eastern terrorist front.”

While the operation is initially only focused on the terrorist hub of Jenin, an unnamed senior security force told the Channel 14 News broadcaster on Tuesday evening that the large-scale campaign could last months.

“When it ends, the terror camps will cease to exist. What we did in Gaza, we will do to them as well; we will leave them in ruins,” the source said.