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2024-07-07 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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The IED threat: Terrorism in the West Bank is fast becoming more sophisticated, deadly
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[IsraelTimes] 2 soldiers have been killed recently by explosive devices buried under roads. Data on IED manufacture shows a fast-growing threat. The fear is that civilians will be targeted next.
In barely a week, the Israel Defense Forces has lost two fighters to powerful roadside kabooms in the West Bank. Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, a sniper team commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, was killed in a kaboom in the Jenin refugee camp on June 27; Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, a combat driver, was killed in a kaboom in the Nur Shams refugee camp on July 1.
Sources at the IDF’s Central Command speak extensively about the deepening threat posed by these improvised bombs (IEDs), and the imperative to tackle the hostile areas where they are being planted in order to preserve the IDF’s freedom of action.
Continued from Page 4
In many ways, the process that the West Bank is undergoing is reminiscent of the threat that emerged in the 1990s in the Security Zone in South Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
. Then, too, Hezbollah identified the IDF’s movement on the roads as a vulnerability and focused on developing and refining IEDs placed along and under the roads.
But unlike the situation in the Security Zone in Lebanon, in the West Bank, the IEDs are, for now, located inside Paleostinian refugee camps, towns and neighborhoods.
These are local initiatives, involving members of various Paleostinian factions, usually joining forces in residential neighborhoods. Their goal is to create ex-territorial zones that the IDF will find difficult to access and operate in.
To counter this new threat, the IDF began sending backhoes and armored D9 bulldozers into the refugee camps of northern Samaria ahead of other forces, to shave the upper layer of asphalt on the roads.
But the terror groups quickly identified this method of action, and started burying the IEDs deeper, out of reach below the asphalt and soil. The 100-kilogram bomb that killed Sacgiu and injured 15 other soldiers in a Panther armored personnel carrier, for instance, was placed at a depth of 1.5 meters.
The IDF is seeing a very fast learning curve among the Paleostinians, who are utilizing information on the Internet and Iranian/Lebanese guidance. All of the bombs detonated against Israeli targets in the West Bank over the past year were made of improvised homemade materials, and some were very high quality.
As far as Israel is concerned, this is a high-priority challenge, in large part because of the ease with which explosives can be assembled locally from dual-use materials. Agricultural fertilizers, hydrogen peroxide, acetone, industrial acids and other civilian materials are transferred without supervision from Israel to the West Bank.
Unlike the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
Strip, where Israel sought to limit the entry of dual-use materials, such oversight does not apply to the West Bank. It is thus urgent that Israel establish a mechanism to control the influx of materials, based on quantity, type and destination.
The IDF is also re-examining the protection of its vehicles. In the Nur Shams refugee camp blast where Geto was killed, his Panther — which is protected at the bottom from IEDs — was severely damaged and flipped upside down. It is estimated that the bomb buried under the road was particularly large and the blast was immensely powerful. A second soldier was seriously maimed.
More advanced protective solutions are being tested, similar to those used by the Armored Corps, including placing steel plates over the vehicles’ weak spots.
IDF R&D is also focusing on future potential threats, notably including against RPGs.
The Iranians, who have identified the Jordan Valley as an area of Israeli vulnerability to arms smuggling, are working to bring weaponry including RPGs and powerful IEDs across the mostly non-existent border.
The IDF has faced thousands of bombs on the roads in Southern Lebanon. And an M18 Claymore device containing hundreds of bullets went kaboom! in March 2023 at the Megiddo Junction in northern Israel after it exploded by a Paleostinian terrorist sent from Lebanon by Hezbollah.
In addition to improved protection, the IDF intends to bolster its intelligence activities in areas where the IEDs are being made. Military Intelligence Satellite Unit 9900 is about to begin operating in the West Bank. The unit aims to provide more accurate and better intelligence in real time thanks to advanced technology described by the IDF as "field control." This enables continuous observation of certain areas and the use of highly advanced analysis and fusion technologies.
Data regarding the IED industry in the West Bank paints a worrying picture. Since the beginning of 2024, the IDF has disarmed more than 50 production laboratories. More than 1,000 IEDs were thrown at troops. And about 150 buried IEDs were found and neutralized beneath civilian infrastructure (buildings and roads).
The numbers point to a clear trend: The threat in the West Bank is in the process of transitioning from low-tech, grassroots terrorism to sophisticated and deadly organized terrorism. It is nowhere near the dimensions, quantity and quality of the Hamas
 ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
onslaught on October 7, 2023, but it is certainly a significant threat. And it is exacerbated because, unlike in Gaza, Paleostinians and Israelis are intertwined in the fabric of daily life in the West Bank.
To date, these particular kinds of attacks have been directed at the IDF inside the refugee camps and cities. The next stage may see it move to the roads used by Israeli citizens, where the consequences would be complex and deadly.
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Posted by trailing wife 2024-07-07 00:00||
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File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
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Posted by Grom the Reflective 2024-07-07 02:26||
2024-07-07 02:26||
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