Israel is “fighting a war on all fronts,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday after the terrorist attack in which Chief Sgt. First Class (res.) Haim Kalomiti was killed, and five others, including the head of Tzur Natan’s emergency response squad, were wounded.
“The IDF, Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency], and the Israel Police have managed to thwart hundreds of attacks in the West Bank in the past year, but not all of them, unfortunately,” he said.
“I praise the Israel Police officers who eliminated the terrorist and also captured his accomplice,” he added.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “If the terrorist is caught alive, he will be executed. This is the law, and we will demand its enforcement.”
“This is precisely why Otzma Yehudit enacted the ‘Death Penalty for Terrorists Law,” he wrote on X/Twitter. “Jewish blood is not forfeited. Whoever murders a Jew will see the hangman’s noose.”
Kalomiti was “a hero of Israel,” Ben-Gvir wrote. He was “a member of an emergency response team who didn’t wait for someone else to defend, but charged toward the terrorists, closed in on them, and fought with valor to save lives. In his courageous action, he prevented a far greater disaster.”
He vowed to continue to provide other emergency response teams with “all the necessary tools to protect Israel’s citizens.”
The drive-by shooting attack began at Kochav Yair and continued to Tzur Yitzhak, Tzur Natan, and Sal’it.
Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan praised the quick actions of the Sal’it security forces, who fired at the terrorist as he approached and prevented a much greater disaster.
“This incident proves once again the critical importance of emergency standby squads, the special operations commands, and the security elements in the settlements,” he said. “Terrorism does not distinguish between Jews and Arabs and does not distinguish between those who live in [Judea and Samaria] and those who live inside the Green Line.”
'We will not allow our enemies to undermine our security'
President Isaac Herzog said, “This is a painful and difficult day in Israel.”
“I am shocked by the horrific terrorist attack in the Sharon region in which an Israeli citizen was murdered, and others were wounded,” he wrote on X. “My heart goes out to the family of the victim, and I am praying for the full and speedy recovery of all those wounded in the attack.
“I commend our security and emergency services who operated with courage and resolve at the scene of the attack and continue to protect the people of Israel.
“We will not allow our enemies to undermine our security, our freedom, and our right to live in safety.”
Smotrich: Israel must wake up and face reality
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the country must face the reality of the “dangerous and extremist terrorist network that is growing under our noses” and wants to “destroy the State of Israel.”
“This morning’s heinous attack in the heart of Sharon is a bloody wake-up call to the profound change that needs to happen among Arab Israelis,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons, including anti-tank missiles, machine guns, and explosive devices, alongside rampant crime and nationalist extremism, are an existential threat.”
“The equation is simple,” he added. “Those who accept the state’s sovereignty will live here in peace. Those who choose the path of terrorism bear responsibility for their own fate.”
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan wrote on X: “I strengthen the hand of the security forces operating in the field. In the North, in the South, and everywhere in Israel, Israel’s citizens deserve quiet and security.”