A week before crucial Israeli elections, caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, military chief Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar are facing an ever-intensifying dilemma. At issue is whether to beef up military and intelligence activity in the Palestinian city of Nablus in an effort to rein in a surging wave of anti-Israel violence and crack down on militant groupings, or wait until after the Nov. 1 voting.

However, circumstances have been overtaking the dilemma in recent days and leading to stark escalation. On the night of Oct. 24-25, Israeli troops and Shin Bet agents carried out what the military billed as “ground action” in Nablus.

This term is generally reserved for a widespread military operation and infiltration of significant ground forces into hostile territory. While it has been used in the past to describe Israeli military incursions into the Gaza Strip under Hamas control, the term has not been heard for many years to describe armed Israeli activity in the West Bank. Israel usually describes its frequent raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank as pin-point and “surgical” in nature.

This was not the case in Nablus this week, when a large contingent of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) units and special police counterterrorism forces raided an apartment that Israeli intelligence described as an explosives’ laboratory and safe house of the Lion’s Den, a group of militants believed responsible for most of the recent attacks on Israeli forces and civilians in the region.