The IED threat: Terrorism in the West Bank is fast becoming more sophisticated, deadly

In barely a week, the Israel Defense Forces has lost two fighters to powerful roadside bombs in the West Bank. Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, a sniper team commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, was killed in an explosion in the Jenin refugee camp on June 27; Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, a combat driver, was killed in an explosion 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 explosive devices (IEDs), and the imperative to tackle the hostile areas where they are being planted in order to preserve the IDF’s freedom of action.

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 Lebanon. 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 Palestinian refugee camps, towns and neighborhoods.

These are local initiatives, involving members of various Palestinian 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. READ MORE