Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened Hamas leaders with direct strikes on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for West Bank operations in which several Israeli soldiers were killed. “We will operate against you if you carry out [acts of] terrorism from Judea and Samaria,” the Premier said in a sharp message to Hamas. “There will not be a situation in which there is a ceasefire in Gaza and the use of fire in Judea and Samaria.” Likud party members and other allies called on him to respond more harshly to the Palestinian operations. In response to the violence, Netanyahu held a "security consultation session" in which his office issued a statement announcing that he had ordered several measures be taken. It said that the PM had decided to legalize thousands of settler homes built illegally in the West Bank. He also requested that Israel’s attorney general take legal steps to facilitate the construction of 82 residential units in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, in which a soldier was killed. In addition, he ordered the “accelerated demolition of terrorists’ homes within 48 hours” and “increased administrative detention” — incarceration without charges or trial — for suspected Hamas perpetrators in the West Bank. “Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us — will pay with his life,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Our enemies know this and we will find them.” Netanyahu also ordered an increased presence of Israeli forces in the West Bank, the placement of roadblocks and the denial of permits for families of perpetrator to stay in Israel. However, settlers, who were not satisfied with the measures, organized street demonstrations in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Around 1,000 settlers demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, with protesters calling for his resignation over the government’s response to the string of attacks carried out by the Palestinians. Posters bearing the face of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in rifle crosshairs and the Hebrew words “assassinate the terror funders” appeared throughout the West Bank as part of a campaign launched by a far-right Israeli group.