Staff Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky was the first soldier from the elite Duvdevan unit to be killed in conflict with the Palestinians since the unit was established 32 years ago. The other 17 casualties were killed by friendly fire and accidents. On May 24, in the course of arresting wanted men in a refugee camp near Ramallah, in Area A, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) holds security responsibility, a heavy marble slab was dropped on Lubarsky, and he was fatally injured.

Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman said in his eulogy, “Duvdevan, one of our elite units, makes many arrests every night in an incessant war, which has no glory and no publicity.” Other government representatives spoke of how essential these operations are for defending Israel’s security.

Is that so? The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seems to have a long list of wanted men, and it routinely sends this unit into Area A, which makes up about 18% of the West Bank, to find these people to take their testimony or to arrest them for trial or hold them in administrative detention. Despite the 1995 interim accord between Israel and the PLO, under which the Palestinians are to be responsible for their internal security, the IDF conducts itself in Ramallah and elsewhere as it does in its own territory.

Israel honored the agreement and left their internal security in the hands of the Palestinians for less than six years after signing it. With the election of Ariel Sharon as prime minister in 2001, and the second intifada and Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, it was decided that Israel would no longer honor its signature on the interim agreement, since the Palestinians violated their commitment outlined in the document.