IDF ends large-scale exercise in West Bank
For the last four days, IDF reserves forces have practiced responding to various terrorist attacks, in preparation for upcoming holidays; Israel's security forces are also on high alert as Hamas has declared it will look to respond to the recent assassination of one of its leaders.
Security forces in Israel have been stepping up their preparedness prior to Passover and Independence Day, which are considered highly volatile times vis-à-vis possible terrorist attacks. In an effort to foresee the different possible scenarios of attack and respond to them successfully, hundreds of IDF reserves officers ended a four-day exercise on Wednesday throughout the West Bank—the first to be conducted in the region in the last five years.
At the exercise was being carried out, Hamas leaders continued to threaten a response to the assassination of Mazan Fukha, one of its leaders belived to have been killied by Israel. As a result, a billboard was posted in the South Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, with the words "We accept the challenge" written on it in Hebrew. The warning was a quote of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, who recently made it known that Hamas is now "in an all-out war with the criminal enemy."
"The enemy uprooted one of our heroes in Gaza," Mashal said on Monday in a public speech he gave in Gaza. Referring to Israel, he added that "it settled the score with one of our own who was released from prison. It's an open battle and we, the leaders, accept the challenge. If the enemy changes their tactic, we will accept it and bear the responsibility to protect our brothers and sisters. We are sticking to the fight to free our prisoners (from Israeli prisons—ed), to free Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.
"Our willpower is stronger than their weapons. We'll beat them in the end," added Mashal. After another Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, was assassinated, he promised that the repercussions for Israel "will be worse than Israel can imagine."
The IDF forces that carried out the four-day exercise prepared for various scenarios, among them Israeli abductions, bomb and vehicular attacks, riots and shooting attacks combined with settlement infiltrations. The exercise was supposed to have taken place a month and a half ago, but was postponed due to the Amona evacuation.
Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman warned earlier this month the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that that the current calm in violence is "deceiving," warning Hamas and other organized terror cells will try to carry out attacks over the Passover holiday.
"We're coming on Passover. There is no doubt that terror cells, particularly the organized one with an emphasis on Hamas, will try to provoke violence and carry out terror attacks," Argaman told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
"Hamas and Islamic Jihad's terror cells are trying every day to carry out attacks within the State of Israel, and we are working day and night in an effort to thwart them," he added.
