Israeli army chief objects to full-blown West Bank military operation amid violence
Xinhua, February 9, 2016 Adjust font size:
Israeli's military commander voiced his objection on Tuesday to a full-blown military operation in the West Bank territories amid a five-month ongoing wave of violence.
Gadi Eizenkot, the Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said during a conference at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya that "those who speak about Defense Shield 2 in the West Bank, don't know Judea and Samaria (Hebrew names for the West Bank)," according to a statement sent by the IDC's spokesperson.
"There are six divisions operating in the West Bank...among them elite units...the IDF has freedom of action," he added, negating any need for a full-blown operation.
Defense shield was a military operation Israel had enacted in the West Bank in 2002 following deadly Palestinian bombing attacks in Israel as part of the second Palestinian intifada claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis.
About 500 Palestinians were killed during the five-week operation and thirty Israeli soldiers as well in the largest military operation in the West Bank territories since the 1967 Mideast War, in which Israel occupied them, as well as east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip territories.
Eizenkot was referring to comments made recently by hawkish right-wing leaders such as Education Minister Naftali Bennet and others who hinted at the need for such an operation, five months into an ongoing wave of violence which saw the deaths of 26 Israelis and more than 160 Palestinians.
In the most recent incident on Tuesday morning, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl was arrested by the Israeli police near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, after wielding a knife at policemen who suspected her and searched her belongings, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
No injuries were reported.
The military chief said there is no organization standing behind the current lone-wolf Palestinian attackers, who carry out stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis, characterizing the culprits as mostly youth who spontaneously decide to carry out attacks and also copycat one another.
According to Eizenkot, 80 percent of the attacks are carried out against Israeli security forces, and only one of the perpetrators of attacks in the past months had a work permit in Israel.
He charged that it is vital the Palestinian population could provide for itself, just as Israeli media reports plans to allow nearly 30,000 more work permits in Israel to Palestinians.
"It is Israel's interest to develop the Palestinian economy," he said, rejecting a prolonged siege as a viable option.
In the past two weeks the IDF enacted temporary sieges on Ramallah and in the Hebron area following Palestinian attacks.
"We have to separate between terrorists and the general population," he added. Endit