JERUSALEM (JTA) — No Jewish settlers will be forced to leave and they will build more homes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday in the wake of a drive-by shooting in the West Bank that left seven injured.
“As long as I am prime minister, not even one Jew will be uprooted from his home,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at the dedication of a new West Bank interchange.
Among the injured in Sunday’s attack outside the West Bank settlement of Ofra was a 21-year-old pregnant woman whose baby was delivered surgically to save her life. The woman is in an induced coma but recovering. The condition of the baby, which was delivered at 30 weeks gestation, has been steadily deteriorating.
“This act of terrorism, like the others, teaches the depth of our enemies’ hatred toward us, the Jews and the Israelis,” Netanyahu said at the dedication. “They have no moral constraints in attacking innocents. We will pursue those responsible for the attack and we will make them pay.”
Netanyahu asserted that not only will Jewish settlers not be forced to leave their homes, “they will build more homes.”
The prime minister said the opening of the new interchange is part of a plan to pave a bypass road and improve infrastructure in the West Bank. Route 60 is a main West Bank thoroughfare linking six major Palestinian cities as well as four Israeli settlements; the new interchange is expected to reduce congestion and improve security for drivers heading to and from Jerusalem.
