Operation Iron Wall expanding in Samaria, tanks spotted

The IDF said today (Sunday) is expanding its operations in northern Samaria from Jenin to the area south of it, including the use of tanks for the first time since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, during the Second Intifada.

i24 reporter Inon Shalom Yttach says that IDF Central Command has long argued that tanks were unnecessary for combat operations in Judea and Samaria, and that the small number of tanks being used now are mostly for psychological effect as for military efficacy.

The expansion of the operation south of Jenin is meant among other things to trap terrorists who may have fled the IDF's operations in Jenin proper southward.

It also comes in the wake of a massive terrorist plot to simultaneously bomb multiple buses and public locations either on Thursday evening or Friday morning, and which was only detected by an alert citizen on a bus.

The IDF's official statement was as follows:

IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police forces continue their counter-terrorism operation in northern Samaria and are expanding offensive activities in the area.

Forces from the Nahal Brigade and the Duvdevan Unit have begun operating in additional villages in the Jenin area of the Menashe Division.

Simultaneously, a tank platoon will operate in Jenin as part of the offensive effort. The forces continue to operate in the Jenin area and in the Tulkarem area.

Operation Iron Wall began a month ago, as part of the IDF's efforts to take a much more thorough approach to extirpating terrorism in Judea and Samaria after mostly focusing on small scale arrest raids. The operation followed a direct clash between terrorist groups and Palestinian Authority security forces which ended in stalemate.

Defense Minister Israel Katz responded to a Knesset parliamentary question when the operation began by saying that the experience from the war in Gaza and elsewhere has informed the course of operations in Jenin now. Katz said that Israel was abandoning the approach of weakening terrorist groups or "mowing the grass" in favor of a much more thorough effort to break up and destroy terrorist units.