Knesset ministers joined hundreds of Jewish settlers outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence protesting over the wave of recent West Bank terror attacks last Sunday.
An outpouring of grief followed the murders of soldiers and civilians in latest atrocities.
“We’re tired of promises,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
“The Prime Minister promised terrorists’ homes would be demolished within 48 hours, but they have yet to demolish the homes of Ari Fuld’s murderers and the murderers of the soldiers in Givat Asaf.
“I call on the Prime Minister, if you make a promise, keep it.”
He added, “It’s time for Israel to go back to winning.
“The incident in Beit El happened because the defence establishment decided to favour the rights of the Palestinians over the security of (Israeli) residents.
“The enemy’s goal is to try to break us. Despair? There’s immense strength here. But our hands are tied behind our backs because of fake justice. Only when we free our hands could we stop it.”
Addressing the rally, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel called on Netanyahu to allow the IDF to act.
“The IDF knows how to do the job, even on three fronts,” he said/
And Bayit Yehudi called on the government to expel terrorists’ families from their homes and provide legal status to settlements on state land in the West Bank.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked wanted Netanyahu to back legislation and legalise buildings in Ofra, where a baby, born prematurely, died.
Economy Minister Eli Cohen supported the “legalising of Ofra” while Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant was “proud of the construction” in all West Bank communities.
In a direct message to terrorists he noted, “We’ll establish security in Judea and Samaria, no matter the cost. Every terrorist will end his life in prison or in a cemetery.”
Likud MK Oren Hazan said he would not vote on legislation until IDF launched an operation to combat terrorism in the West Bank.
“We’re tired of indecision. We want to eliminate terrorists,” Hazan said.
Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid was critical of the government’s response to terror.
But Netanyahu defended his actions at a weekly Cabinet meeting.
“Following the wave of murderous terrorist attacks, we have taken vigorous security and settlement actions,” he said.
Two of the terrorists were “located and eliminated” and a third had surrendered.
Netanyahu told ministers he had ordered the accelerated the demolition of terrorists’ homes and revocation of work permits of terrorist’s families.
“I sent a clear message to Hamas,” he explained. “We will not accept a situation in which there is a ceasefire in Gaza and terrorism in Judea and Samaria. We will exact a heavy price for this.”
Netanyahu also noted that thousands of homes in West Bank settlements had been legalised and 82 new homes and apartments had been approved in Ofra.
Meanwhile, Israel Defence Forces discovered a fourth Hezbollah terror tunnel running from Lebanon into Israeli Israel.
Security forces laid explosives in the tunnel, which is now in IDF control and posed no “imminent” threat to Israeli citizens.
Netanyahu told reporters that the latest discovery was part of the IDF’s Northern Shield military operation, which had been planned with precision.
Local authority leaders are aware of updates in the region.
An IDF spokesman said they held Lebanese Government accountable for the attack tunnels in Lebanese territory, which were “blatant” breaches of UN Resolution 1701 concerning the Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah 12 years ago.
Netanyahu reinforced his recent message to the terror group.
“If they make the mistake of choosing to harm us, they will sustain an unimaginable blow,” he said.
“Hezbollah thought it was digging, but we knew and planned carefully. We’re implementing exactly what we planned, but we’re also prepared for unplanned things, and there’s great firepower here.”
Netanyahu said the IDF acted because the intentions of Hezbollah was to murder Israeli civilians in northern Israel.
“Hezbollah could have gone into a killing spree,” he said.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun ascertained that there was no risk to peace from Israeli operations.
The discovery followed security forces dealing with three terror tunnels last week.
Israel have agreed that UN peacekeeping Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are maintaining channels of communication regarding the tunnels in Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah has released footage of IDF troops operating the cross-border tunnels.