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How the IDF Kept the West Bank Relatively Quiet

(Times of Israel) Lazar Berman - Before the Gaza war, the IDF's Samaria Regional Brigade had to deal with a range of threats, including repeated shooting attacks on Route 60, the north-south West Bank artery that cut through the Palestinian town of Huwara. Route 60 now loops around the town. After Oct. 7, Hamas called for Palestinians in the West Bank to join it in attacking Israelis, but that didn't happen and the number of attacks dropped. The year before the Hamas invasion saw 77 shooting attacks in Samaria. In the eight months since, there have been five such incidents, and all the perpetrators have been caught or killed. There were 50 rock-throwing attacks every month before Oct. 7 and less than five per month since then. A senior IDF officer said the main reason is because of significantly expanded IDF operations since the start of the war. "Any force that tries to be guided by Hamas or Iran, or receives money, we simply go in and take it apart," said a brigade officer. "We used to need special forces to go into Balata [refugee camp near Nablus]. Now, we go in whenever we want." The brigade has killed around 200 terrorists. "We will continue the system of mowing the grass here, and we won't need to reach the type of fighting in Gaza," said an officer.
2024-06-06 00:00:00
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