As violence spreads, Israel braces for escalation in West Bank
Ahead of the Jewish holiday period, the Israel Defense Forces are preparing for the possibility of more terror attacks originating from the West Bank.
In conversations with the country’s top defense officials over the last few weeks about the greatest threats to Israel’s security, the Palestinian front has constantly topped the list, with particular emphasis on the West Bank.
With the fall holiday season approaching and given the number of Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli defense officials are bracing themselves.
The recent escalation of tensions between Israel and the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza did not actually begin in the Strip. It erupted with the arrest of a senior Islamic Jihad member in Jenin that was immediately followed with threats of vengeance by the group’s leaders in Gaza.
Israel suffered little damage from the recent confrontation with Islamic Jihad, compared with the harm it sustained during Operation “Guardian of the Walls” a year earlier. Back then, Hamas was successful in a number of ways, from the recruitment of new members in mixed Jewish-Arab cities within the Green Line to direct clashes with Israel’s security forces.
