Settlements council head calls for major Israeli operation against Palestinian Authority

Yisrael Gantz, head of an Israeli settlements council in the occupied West Bank, has called on the Israeli government to launch a large-scale military operation against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security forces following a fatal shooting near the settlement of Neve Tzuf, northwest of Ramallah.

Gantz called on the government to “dismantle the Palestinian Authority and disarm its agencies,” arguing that the PA’s continued existence poses a security threat to Israel.

His comments followed a shooting near a spring in the Binyamin region of the West Bank in which an Israeli settler was killed.

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Israeli forces later announced that they had arrested the person suspected of carrying out the shooting. Further details about the suspect and the circumstances of the attack were not immediately provided in the report.

Gantz’s remarks come amid heightened tensions and continuing Israeli military operations across the West Bank.

The comments were also made shortly before the start of Yom Kippur, when Israeli security forces typically increase deployments and security measures around sensitive locations.

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