Israel’s Defence Minister Threatens Full-Scale War Against Palestinian Authority Over Possible October 7-Style Attack

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday, September 7, 2026, threatened a “full-scale war” against the Palestinian Authority if it prepared an attack against Israeli forces or settlements similar to the one Hamas launched from Gaza on October 7, 2023. The source describes the warning as unusual. Palestinian authorities denounced it as an attempt to fuel the conflict during the Israeli election season, and it came as violence surges in the occupied territory. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Katz’s remarks followed a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli settler in the northern West Bank. Following a manhunt on Monday, the Israeli military said it had shot and killed the Palestinian assailant. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said the stabbing victim had been taken to hospital in a moderate to serious condition. The civil affairs authority identified the assailant as 34-year-old Mahmoud Mohammed Arabi Mohsen. His uncle, Nizar Arabi Mohsen, said he had been “suffering from a mental illness” for around four years.

In his remarks, Katz said that if the Palestinian Authority’s security mechanisms and related bodies initiated, or Israel knew with certainty they were about to initiate, a terror attack in the style of October 7 against IDF forces and Jewish settlements, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to prepare for the opening of a full-scale war.” In a statement from his office, Katz said the military campaign would target the “senior leadership and mechanisms” of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as well as “all terror infrastructure” in the territory.

According to Katz’s statement, the operation would include “targeted killings of senior figures” and the “evacuation of residents from the cities and villages from which terror activity is carried out”, with a permanent Israeli military presence in those areas. Katz said the operation would emulate the so-called “security zones” in which the Israeli military currently operates in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Rawhi Fattouh, president of the Palestinian National Council, the West Bank-based legislative body, said Katz’s statement exposed the “aggressive and racist nature of the Israeli government”. Fattouh said the comments “confirm that it is not seeking a partner for peace, but rather a permanent fuel for conflict and the spread of chaos and instability,” according to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa. Peace is at the center of this dispute, which is why Romans 12:18 is relevant to the exchange between the two sides.

The source reports that the Palestinian Authority does not officially take part in militant activity and that its security forces have worked to crack down on local militancy in the West Bank. It also reports that there was no indication Monday’s attack was carried out with the consent or knowledge of the Palestinian Authority. Separately, the source notes that recent months have seen soaring attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, often with little or no legal consequence.

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called to “escalate the resistance and engage with the enemy soldiers and settler gangs”.

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