Israel fighting ‘fierce war’ against terror on multiple fronts, Netanyahu says after Jerusalem attack
By JNS STAFF
(JNS.org) – Israel is fighting a “fierce war against terrorism on several fronts,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday during a visit to the site of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of six people earlier in the day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the site of a terrorist shooting attack in northern Jerusalem, Sept. 8, 2025. Photo by Haim Zach/GPO.
“I want to extend condolences to the families of the victims and to the wounded,” said Netanyahu.
Six people were murdered and a dozen more wounded in a shooting in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on Monday morning.
Two terrorists were neutralized at the scene by an Israel Defense Forces soldier and an armed civilian. The soldier was identified in reports as a squad commander in the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade.
“When I say we are in an intense war on several fronts, we naturally have tremendous successes against terrorist regimes and organizations. But the war continues, also in the Gaza Strip, where we will destroy Hamas as we have promised and free our hostages—all of our hostages—and unfortunately also here in Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu.
“In Judea and Samaria, we acted with very great force. The Shin Bet, the IDF and also the Israel Police thwarted hundreds of terror attacks this year, but not this morning unfortunately,” the premier added.
However, the country’s security forces will get to everyone who assisted or sent the terrorists and will take “even harsher measures,” he warned.
“These murders, these attacks, in all sectors, do not weaken us,” he said. “They only increase our determination to complete the missions we took upon ourselves everywhere—also in Gaza and also Judea and Samaria.”
Israel, he continued, was “fighting terrorism—the terror regime of the Houthis, Iran that backs them all, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Hezbollah, in every sector. We do not relent and we will not relent. We will intensify our actions, and we will achieve all our objectives.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose ministry oversees the Israel Police, urged all civilians to apply for firearms licenses, speaking at the prime minister’s side at the site of the attack.
“There was an act of heroism here, by a soldier from the Hasmonean Brigade, a Haredi Jew, and by two Haredim who received weapons as part of the weapons reform,” he stated. “Weapons save lives, we must remember that. I call on the citizens of Israel: go arm yourselves.”
Ben-Gvir in his statement expressed condolences to the families of the fatalities and prayed for the recovery of the wounded, while urging harsher measures against Palestinian terrorists and their relatives.
The only solution, he said, was “deporting terrorists’ families, together with a firm hand in the prisons, along with all the actions being carried out by the Shin Bet, IDF, Israel Police and Israel Prison Service.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Monday that it had been “a painful and difficult morning.”
“Innocent civilians, children and adults, were murdered and wounded in cold blood on a city street,” he said. “The shocking attack reminds us again that we are fighting absolute evil. The world must understand the enemy we face, and it must internalize that terrorism will never defeat us.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian matters in Judea and Samaria as a second minister in the Defense Ministry, urged a sweeping response to the attack.
“The State of Israel cannot accept a Palestinian Authority that raises and educates its children to murder Jews,” Smotrich tweeted, adding that the terrorists’ villages “should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun” in Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, speaking at a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest on Monday afternoon, said the international community “must now make a clear choice” in the war.
“Are they on Israel’s side? Or are they on the side of the jihadists?” the top diplomat said, declaring that the Jewish state is fighting a “war against radical Islamist terrorism” and rejects a Palestinian state.
“The terrorists this morning came from P.A. territories,” Sa’ar noted at the Budapest press conference, adding: “The establishment of such a terror state would have one goal: the elimination of the State of Israel.”
The Hamas terrorist organization released a statement praising the “heroic operation” carried out by “two Palestinian resistance fighters,” calling the attack “a natural response to the occupation’s crimes.”
The statement called on Palestinians across Judea and Samaria to “escalate the confrontation with the occupation and its settlers.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered to reinforce troops in Judea and Samaria, including to encircle the areas from where the terrorists originated, in the wake of the shooting, in addition to continuing military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Due to the development of operational events in the different arenas,” the IDF chief decided to halt a situational assessment on personnel on Monday morning, as well as to postpone a military ceremony that was set to take place on Monday night, according to the statement.
The decision followed a assessment with senior commanders, including Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, Operations Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Itzik Cohen, Intelligence Directorate head Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder and others.
