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The Fast-Growing IED Threat in the West Bank
(Times of Israel) Amir Bar Shalom - Within a week, the Israel Defense Forces has lost two fighters to powerful roadside bombs in the West Bank. Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, was killed in the Jenin refugee camp on June 27; Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, was killed in the Nur Shams refugee camp on July 1. Sources at the IDF Central Command speak about the deepening threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which are reminiscent of the threat in the 1990s in the Security Zone in South Lebanon, where Hizbullah focused on placing IEDs along and under roads. To counter this threat, the IDF began sending backhoes and armored D9 bulldozers into the refugee camps of northern Samaria ahead of other forces, to shave the upper layer of asphalt on the roads. But the terror groups started burying the IEDs deeper. The 100-kg. explosive device that killed Sacgiu and injured 15 other soldiers in an armored personnel carrier was placed at a depth of 1.5 meters.