Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that “[the village of] Funduq, Nablus and Jenin should look like Jabalia [in the Gaza strip], so that Kfar Saba does not become Kfar Aza, God forbid”, referring to a town in central Israel and a community near Gaza that was affected in the October 7, 2023 attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

He made the comments on X following a bus shooting attack earlier today that killed three people near the Palestinian village of Funduq in the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich demanded Netanyahu should call an urgent cabinet meeting today “to discuss a change in perception and the true eradication of terrorism in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank]”.

Editorial

Updated 04 Aug, 2026

Swat bombing

IT is a bitter irony that terrorists struck a protest against violence in Swat on Sunday, causing at least 17...
04 Aug, 2026

Tariff blow

FOR an export sector already squeezed by high production costs, the additional 10pc tariff on top of the existing...
04 Aug, 2026

Perilous peaks

THE deaths of 10 climbers in an avalanche on Broad Peak is a sad reminder of the perils that many mountaineers face...
Updated 03 Aug, 2026

Farewell to arms?

PALESTINIAN resistance group Hamas recently made a major concession by agreeing to give up its weapons. It should be...
03 Aug, 2026

Unplanned future

A PROJECTION that Pakistan’s population could reach 400m by 2040 should not be treated as another dramatic number...
03 Aug, 2026

No more torture

EVEN the best laws on the books are worth little unless the state shows the willingness to enforce them. This is...