Israel Threatens Total War on the West Bank

Consortium News
Volume 31, Number 295 — Sunday, October 25, 2026


Israel Threatens Total War on the West Bank


Palestinian forces have not responded to rising settler violence, but the Netanyahu government has still been stoking tensions with the PA ahead of the Oct. 27 Israeli elections, Mohammed Altaj reports




Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. General Assembly in September. (UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

By Mohammed Altaj
in Ramallah, Palestine
Special to Consortium News




Israel is threatening “total war” against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

With just days to go before the Israeli general election on Oct. 27, Israel’s prime minister and defense minister have threatened a full-scale attack if an Israel settler or soldier is killed by a member of the Palestinian security forces.

Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened all-out war against the West Bank at a government security meeting on Oct. 6 held to discuss lessons learned from Oct. 7, 2023. He said that the IDF was waiting for PA security personnel and associated groups to “turn their guns” against Israeli settlers and IDF troops in the West Bank.

Katz said:


“In such a case, war will be declared against the Palestinian Authority, and the IDF will launch a comprehensive offensive in accordance with an organized plan that was formulated and approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by me, according to the principles outlined for the IDF.”

Katz added:


“The campaign will be short and powerful, and will include the use of ground and air forces, and the use of special means, the targeting and expulsion of senior officials, the destruction of weapons and military equipment, and the extensive evacuation of residents and destruction of terrorist infrastructure inside the cities and in all refugee camps in Judea and Samaria[West Bank] , in accordance with the Gaza and Lebanon model, alongside reinforcing forces and defending the Israeli communities.”

Katz, on left, at the Pentagon in 2025. (DoD/Noel Diaz)


During a visit to a West Bank security barrier on Oct.13, Netanyahu also warned of all out war against Ramallah. “Our enemies are thinking of testing us in these days leading up to the elections. I warn them that we are prepared for every scenario, including what is known as ‘turning the guns around,’” he said.

Netanyahu said the IDF had given him and Katz


“a powerful, robust plan. … In such a scenario, I wouldn’t advise our enemies to test us. You will encounter a level of force here that you never imagined.”

Netanyahu first raised the possibility of the Palestinians turning their guns against Israel at an Aug. 24 meeting at IDF Central Command headquarters.

Ynetnews reported: “The Palestinian security services legally possess thousands of firearms in the West Bank, with Israel’s approval. Under the scenario discussed by Netanyahu, those weapons would instead be directed against Israeli targets.”

Israeli intelligence, however, says there’s no indication of a threat to Israelis. The Jerusalem Post reported:


“IDF sources said the military had no concrete intelligence pointing to a planned rebellion by PA security forces or Fatah-affiliated Tanzim elements. They acknowledged, however, that the IDF must routinely prepare for every scenario, including highly unlikely ones.”


Non-Existent Threat

Israeli soldiers in Jenin, the occupied West Bank, in January 2025. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0)


But that has not stopped Netanyahu and Katz from raising tensions further by speaking of a threat that does not exist.

In fact, during the recent upsurge in settler violence against Palestinians, there has not been a single incident recorded of PA security forces firing on settlers or the IDF to protect Palestinians and their property.

“The Palestinian Authority said it does not respond to settlers attacks, citing the potential for political repercussions if the Palestinian authorities were to get into a confrontations with the settlers or the Israeli army,” reported The New York Times in May.

The IDF, on the other hand, has fired on and killed PA security forces. For instance, earlier this month, PA National Security Forces officer Ali al-Bazari, 44, was killed near Nablus by settlers and the IDF.

Ynetnews reported:


“Senior military officers warned that the situation in the West Bank was ‘getting out of control,’ while security officials cautioned political leaders that the territory was ‘on the verge of exploding‘ because of the growing number of incidents of nationalist violence committed by extremist settlers,” and not by the PA.

If Netanyahu wants to start yet another major war to help him win the election — or to complicate the transition if he loses — he will need a significant casus belli. That would appear to be PA forces killing Israel settlers or soldiers.

With the IDF repeatedly firing on PA personnel it would only take one of them to return fire and kill an Israeli for Netanyahu to respond. So far the PA is resisting falling into that trap, even though Palestinians criticize their security forces for failing to protect them from Israeli soldiers and settlers.

A full-scale Israeli war against the Palestinians on the West Bank would be a continuation of the war of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza, a key goal of the more than 80-year old plan to establish Greater Israel. Seizing all of historic Palestine from the Arabs is an objective set down by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

Ending Oslo

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. President Bill Clinton and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat at Oslo Accords signing ceremony, Sept. 13, 1993. (Vince Musi, White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)


In this political climate, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has openly called for ending the Oslo agreements and dismantling the PA.

He has challenged Palestinian jurisdiction over Areas A and B, advocated forcibly disarming Palestinians in the West Bank and supported a military campaign modeled on Israel’s war in Gaza, just what Netanyahu and Katz are threatening.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has demanded the disarmament of Palestinian security forces and harsher measures against the Authority. He has also promoted policies intended to encourage Palestinians to leave the West Bank and Gaza.

Opposition politician Avigdor Liberman has proposed dismantling the PA, cancelling Oslo and maintaining Israeli security control over the West Bank while preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

They may disagree over what should replace the Authority, but they share a fundamental assumption: that Israel has the right to decide whether Palestinian institutions should exist and what powers they may exercise.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops enter Palestinian cities and towns whenever they choose. They raid homes, arrest residents and conduct military operations even in Area A, where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to exercise internal security authority.

Armed settlers attack farmers and families, destroy property and restrict access to land, while Palestinian security personnel often remain inside their headquarters.

The division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C under the Oslo agreements has long ceased to offer Palestinians meaningful protection. Israeli forces raid Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm and Ramallah whenever they choose. Settlers enter communities under Palestinian administration, attack residents and prevent farmers from reaching their land.

In February 2025, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that a settlement security official stopped a Palestinian police patrol near Ramallah and confiscated its weapons.

A settlement security official could disarm Palestinian police officers in territory supposedly under Palestinian security jurisdiction.

Yet Netanyahu presents those same security forces as a danger serious enough to justify preparing for war that he may well try to provoke.

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If there is no more war, Satanyahu may have to go to jail