Netanyahu calls urgent meeting after rightists attack IDF base

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency discussion with Israeli defense officials on Tuesday, following an attack by right-wing activists on an IDF base in the West Bank.

"The situation is intolerable," Netanyahu said at the opening of the discussion. "We must take care of these rioters with a firm hand. We will not tolerate a situation in which IDF officers and soldiers are attacked and distracted from protecting Israeli citizens."

Early Tuesday morning, some 50 settlers and right-wing activistsentered a West Bank military base and threw rocks, burned tires, and vandalized military vehicles. An IDF officer was lightly wounded as a result of the rock-throwing.

In addition to the attack on the IDF base, right-wing activists blocked a main West Bank road and threw stones at passing Palestinian vehicles and IDF soldiers in the area.

Around 100 right-wing activists and settlers came to the area of the base before 50 of them entered the base, according to the IDF spokesman.

The youths were repelled by security forces. No arrests were made.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak harshly condemned the attack, with Barak saying the actions carried "an air of self-made terrorism."

Netanyahu instructed Israeli security forces to act decisively against right-wing activists and Barak said he is determined to put a stop to such actions and instructed IDF forces to use all means necessary to find the perpetrators.

Moreover, prominent settler leaders as well as right-wing lawmakers also denounced the attack.

Yesha Council chairman Danny Dayan said the attack was an "inappropriate, shameful, and ungrateful" act and called on the perpetrators to turn themselves in.

Rightist group Im Tirtzu also condemned the attack and called to punish those responsible. "We call for the investigation and severe punishment of those people who adopted the ways of Arab terrorists and activists from the extreme left," a statement said.

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon described Tuesday night’s events as “terrorism.”

“The violent acts last night in Judea and Samaria are acts of terror,” he said.

Meanwhile, MK Yaakov Katz, chairman of the National Union, also condemned the attack, saying “anyone who harms the IDF, its soldiers and officers, is not related to settlers, but in fact wants to harm them.”

Haaretz