Israel considered mounting aerial attacks this week to target suspected terrorists in the heart of the West Bank and back up its troops on the ground raiding their strongholds.
It was the second time such an option was weighed during a raid of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin in recent weeks. This time, too, a colonel commanding the battalion operating on the ground discarded the idea after deciding the risk of deploying armed aircraft outweighed the benefits for the troops fighting in one of the most densely populated and hostile Palestinian bastions of the West Bank.