Judea and Samaria terror threat ‘real and imminent,’ Israeli UN ambassador warns

Danon’s speech to the Security Council came after several members of the U.N. body recognized a Palestinian state without preconditions.

By Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon

Israeli forces last week uncovered and dismantled a missile manufacturing facility in Judea and Samaria—less than 13 miles from Jerusalem—underscoring how Palestinian terror groups continue to operate within close striking distance of major cities.

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, disclosed the findings during a Monday address before the U.N. Security Council in which he warned members that the threat from Judea and Samaria is “real and imminent.”

Israeli troops in Ramallah discovered “dozens of parts” and at least “two already assembled” missiles “pointing toward an Israeli town,” Danon said in remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

“Our forces moved in just in time, seizing the site and dismantling the rockets just minutes before they could be fired.”

The IDF unearthed a second weapons depot “days later” in Tulkarm, a Samarian enclave located just 15 miles from the coastal city of Netanya, a popular tourist destination.

A rocket found at this site was “so unstable that bomb disposal teams had to neutralize it” immediately, Danon told Security Council members.

“These are not far-off threats,” he continued. “They are weapons built within minutes of Israeli towns and cities. Hidden workshops of death, right on our doorstep.”

Judea and Samaria under the Palestinian Authority’s control may appear comparatively stable, but these previously unreported operations demonstrate how terrorist groups in the region have plotted attacks on Israel during the Jewish state’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“We have learned the cost of failing to eradicate terror immediately at its source,” Danon said. “That same danger now rises in Judea and Samaria [with] workshops preparing rockets and weapons just miles from our cities.”

Danon told the Security Council that, without action, Judea and Samaria could become a major hub for terrorism.

“The same methods began in Gaza twenty years ago,” when Hamas started building “small workshops,” he said. “We have learned the cost of failing to eradicate terror immediately at its source.”

Danon’s speech to the Security Council came after several members of the U.N. body recognized a Palestinian state without preconditions.

The Israeli ambassador implored members to confront the reality of Judea and Samaria and the decades-long failure of PA president Mahmoud Abbas to curb the rise of Hamas-affiliated terror networks.

“Those who turned a blind eye to Gaza two decades ago now see the results,” Danon said. “We will not repeat that mistake in Judea and Samaria. Neither should this Council.”

French president Emmanuel Macron, who has spearheaded U.N. efforts to establish a Palestinian state controlled by the PA, claimed in an interview with CBS News last week that there is “no Hamas in the West Bank.”

“Better check again,” Danon said to the Security Council, which includes France. “In June, our forces uncovered two major Hamas infrastructures in Hebron and Bethlehem.”

During those security raids, Israel seized around 600 weapons, arrested 70 Hamas terrorists, and destroyed 15 observation posts and 20 weapons workshops in the Hebron region alone.

Israeli forces in November 2024, meanwhile, intercepted an Iranian arms shipment headed for the Samaria town of Jenin.

“Iran is there, too, arming, funding, and coordinating terror,” Danon said.

He argued that recognizing a Palestinian state and giving Abbas’s PA control will only foster a terror command center that rivals that in Gaza.

“The Palestinian Authority has filled textbooks with hatred, glorified violence in public squares, and incentivized terror through its ‘pay-to-slay’ policy,” Danon said, referring to the PA’s practice of paying imprisoned terrorists and their families monthly stipends.

“Peace will not come through speeches or declarations. It will only come through courage, accountability, and the will to end terror at its core.”