A Palestinian terrorist group launched a rocket Monday from within a Palestinian area of Samaria (the northern West Bank), which landed elsewhere in Palestinian territory, according to the Israeli military.
While the rocket attack did not, apparently, cause any damage, the incident is still being treated extremely seriously because Israel has long worried that Palestinians would use the West Bank to launch rockets at Israeli population centers, as they already do from Gaza.
Unlike Gaza, the West Bank is directly adjacent to Israel’s major cities. The skyline of Tel Aviv, Israel’s financial capital, is visible from Palestinian villages nearby.
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a statement: “The fielding of rockets in the West Bank, even if only in its early stages, is supremely worrying. If allowed to proliferate, this kind of weapon would threaten not only Israeli soldiers and civilians but eventually core national interests like Ben Gurion Airport and the Haifa refineries.”
FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer added: “The Iranian regime has invested decades and untold sums to arm and train Hamas and Islamic Jihad to fire rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Until now, Israel has successfully halted Tehran’s efforts to mount a similar effort in the West Bank. This failed rocket attempt is a wake-up call for Israel. The regime is trying to replicate its successes in Gaza. A major effort is now needed to root out the nascent rocket program in the West Bank. From all appearances, this is a race against time.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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