Intel Minister After Triple Attack: Israel at War With IS-Style Muslim Extremism

TEL AVIV – Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday night that the current wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis is a “war against Islamic State-style Muslim extremist terror,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

“We are in an emergency situation,” Katz told Channel 2 following a series of terrorist attacks that took place in three different areas on Tuesday. “There are murderers here who are motivated by hatred and we cannot allow Jews to continue to be harmed. There is an intifada of incitement. We must restore deterrence, so I must ask all the higher than thou who scold us to understand our current reality.”

The Likud minister also promised to file a bill on Wednesday that calls for the deportation of terrorists’ family members to Gaza.

Taylor Force, an American citizen and U.S. Army veteran, was killed in the attacks, which also wounded 13 others. Force, who was an MBA student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, was  knifed by a Palestinian terrorist who went on a stabbing spree in Jaffa and south Tel Aviv.

Two other attacks occurred earlier in the day in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva.  In Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman shot and wounded two border policemen while in Petah Tikva a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli who was collecting charity in a store. After being stabbed multiple times, the victim, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, extracted the knife from his own neck and stabbed and killed his attacker.

Interior Minister Arye Deri visited the victim in the hospital and praised his heroic actions. Deri also told Israeli citizens that they must continue with their lives.

Opposition MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) said in response to the attacks that the country must understand that if the diplomatic impasse between Israel and the Palestinians continues, “the wave of terrorism will not disappear and the conflict will continue to sweep into Israel.”

She added that Vice President Joe Biden’s arrival in Israel could be an opportunity to “lower the flames” between Israel and the Palestinians.

On Tuesday night, Channel 1 released a poll that found that 73% of Israelis are unsatisfied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the security situation and only 23% are satisfied.

The Gaza-based terrorist entity Hamas praised the attacks, saying they are proof that the Palestinians are still intent on defeating Israel and attempts by Israel to stop them are not working.