After three major terror attacks in less than one week in major Israeli cities that took the lives of 11 and traumatized millions of Israelis, on Wednesday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz conducted a situation assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Military Intelligence Chief Major General Aharon Haliva, Operations Chief General Oded Basiuk,
Coordinator of Operations in the Territories, Major General Rassan Aliyan, Air Force Commander Major General Tal Kalman, and the head of the political security division, Dror Shalom.
At the end of the meeting, the Defense Ministry issued the following list of steps to be taken immediately in response to the wave of terrorist violence:
- The defense minister has approved a reinforcement of 1,000 soldiers to be trained to assist the Israel Police in maintaining internal security
- The IDF will assist the Israel Police in the mobilization of Border Police companies, including their required equipment
- The intelligence efforts will be focused with an emphasis on social networks
- Forces and means will be allocated for curbing illegal infiltrators and arms dealers from Judea and Samaria
- The defense minister has agreed to launch an action plan for construction at key points in the seamline barrier between Israel proper and Judea and Samaria, which will be presented at the beginning of next week for immediate operation
- The IDF will lead an accelerated recruitment process of thousands of reserve Border Police fighters to serve under IDF command in Judea and Samaria, and be assigned according to the needs of the police
- Massive deployment of forces, starting with Judea and Samaria which is being augmented by 12 battalions and Gaza by two battalions, to prevent incidents, deal quickly and decisively with incidents and restore a sense of security.
According to Ma’ariv, citing a senior police official on Wednesday, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has requested in a meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Finance Ministry officials the immediate addition of 4,000 recruits to the police force, to deal with the wave of terrorism.
So far, the police has received 1,000 recruits to deal with Arab-on-Arab crime.
Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Temano-Sheta said on Wednesday at the Israel Hayom “resilience conference” that “every terrorist should be mowed down without delay. Every terrorist who raises a knife to kill, or picks up a weapon – his blood is on his head.”
Easier said than done.
