Most Israelis fear Oct.7-style massacre could happen in Judea and Samaria
More than two in three Israeli Jews fear that Palestinian terrorists based in Judea and Samaria could launch a significant terrorist attack similar to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre near the Gaza Strip, according to a poll the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs published this week.
The survey, which was conducted by the Lazar Research Institute and was first published in Hebrew on Tuesday, surveyed a representative sample of some 700 Israelis—Arabs and Jews—between Feb. 11 and 13.
Sixty-eight percent of the Jewish respondents have concerns about a large-scale terrorist attack emanating from Judea and Samaria, while a quarter of the state’s Arab minority fear this scenario.
The JCFA poll also found that, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, 67% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state along the country’s pre-1967 borders. Three-fourths of Jews are against creating a “Palestine,” while 16% of Arab Israelis declared they oppose the move.
“for most Israelis, the fear of another attack is not just a far-fetched scenario”
“The survey suggests that, for most Israelis, the fear of another attack is not just a far-fetched scenario, but a tangible threat that must be taken into account in formulating a clear strategy to ensure the security of [Israeli] residents,” the Jerusalem-based think tank commented.
In September, Israeli authorities filed an indictment against a member of a terrorist squad based in Jenin who planned to infiltrate Israeli civilian communities in Samaria and carry out an Oct. 7, 2023-style massacre.
The indictment accused Osama Bani Fadl and other terrorist operatives of making serious preparations for a mass slaughter targeting Jewish residents of Samaria, including by infiltrating towns with vehicles.
The terrorist cell reportedly also planned attacks inside the town of Ma’ale Efraim in the Jordan Valley, and a drive-by shooting and car bombing at the gas station outside Eli in the Binyamin region of Samaria, a location that was targeted twice by Palestinian terrorists over the past two years.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Monday.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
The figures, which were cross-checked against official data from Israel’s security services, included 3,668 instances of rock-throwing, 843 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 671 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers, 526 explosive charges, 364 cases of arson and 179 terrorist shootings.
The rescue group also recorded 37 attempted or successful stabbings, 36 bottles of paint being thrown at vehicles and 19 Palestinian car-ramming attacks, including 12 that caused injuries to Israelis.
The report noted that the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) last year foiled more than a thousand major attacks in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
“We will strike hard at the arms of the octopus until they are severed.”
On Jan. 21, Israeli forces launched “Operation Iron Wall,” which seeks to neutralize the threat posed by terrorist hotbeds such as Jenin and Tulkarem in northern Samaria. The ongoing counter-terror raids mark a change in Jerusalem’s security strategy, Defense Minister Israel Katz has stressed.
“We will not allow the arms of the Iranian octopus and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of the residents and establish an eastern terrorist front against the State of Israel,” Katz said on Jan. 22, vowing, “We will strike hard at the arms of the octopus until they are severed.”
