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Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three others were wounded by Friday morning fire from two Palestinian gunmen at a checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, just four days prior to the October 27 Israel election.
Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon and a squad commander, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon, were killed in the attack, the Israeli military said. The three Home Front soldiers wounded in the attack, who are part of the same battalion as the two killed, suffer from light to moderate injuries. The three are from the 775th “Ari” Battalion of the Search and Rescue Brigade of the Home Front Command.
The two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at a checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank this morning arrived at the Judea Junction on Route 35 in a car with Israeli license plates, armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol, Israel Today reported. The gunfight with the Israeli soldiers who responded to the attack was prolonged and lasted over 20 minutes during which both attackers were killed by the soldiers. A large amount of ammunition was found in the car the two gunmen arrived in, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said. Netanyahu said it appeared Hamas terrorists were planning “a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians.” Both gunmen were members of Hamas, Israeli media reported, according to Israel Today.
The Israeli Prime Minister said he had instructed the military to “impose a cordon on the city of Hebron and to prepare for a full closure of the entire West Bank starting today,” DW reported. In the Hebron neighborhood where the two shooters came from, the IDF would apply the same model used in the refugee camps in the West Bank. “We will evacuate the residents, go from house to house, remove the weapons there, and address and demolish all terrorist infrastructure,” Netanyahu said. He added that Israel is placing a siege on the city of Hebron and its neighboring city of Halhul, and would consider applying the same model in other cities as well.
Netanyahu added that an even bigger operation is going to be carried out by the IDF in Judea and Samaria. “The Defense Minister and I have seen an IDF operation in Judea and Samaria on a very broad scale, unlike anything carried out since the Six-Day War. The IDF is ready to carry it out, and we will determine the timing, but it is coming.” He gave no date.
To the settlers in the area, Netanyahu declared, “You are an example to the people of Israel. You are an example to the State of Israel. We are going to destroy the terrorist infrastructure, and we are going to build the settlement infrastructure.” He continued that the government was advancing plans to build and legalize over 100 new communities and over 100 farms.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a large-scale military campaign in the West Bank. He said he wanted a campaign “exactly like in Gaza and Lebanon,” DW reported. Immediately he ordered the demolition of a row of what he called illegal Arab structures next to the spot where the attack took place.
The attack occurred at the end of the campaign, when the voting is due to take place in four days’ time, on October 27. According to DW, the vote is widely seen as a referendum on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The polls have predicted a very tight race between the pro-Netanyahu camp and its opponents. Netanyahu connected the attack to threats that the election-season expects from his enemies. “We warned several weeks ago about attempts by our enemies to harm us, our civilians and our soldiers ahead of the elections. That is what they tried to do here,” he said.
Meanwhile, Turkish Naval Officers Visit Syria’s Navy
Meanwhile, a high-ranking Turkish delegation of naval officers visited Latakia, Syria, to support the Syrian Navy, according to reports circulating Friday. Senior officers of the Turkish Navy including Rear Adm. Erdinc Yetkin, the Istanbul Shipyard Commander, Rear Adm. Timur Yilmaz, the Naval Forces Logistics Chief, Rear Adm. Yucel Darcan, the Naval Training and Education Commander and Turkish state defense firm ASFAT representatives were among those who visited the Syrian port city.
The talks covered the maintenance, repair and modernization of Syrian naval ships, new ship construction, individual and team training and port facilities. A Memorandum of Understanding as well as a Road Map for Cooperation was agreed during the meeting, details on the implementation including time frames, numbers of new ships as well as budget figures however are not yet available to the public.
The visit follows a July 14 trip by Turkish Naval Forces Commander Adm. Ercument Tatlioglu to the Syrian port city of Latakia. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said at the time that maritime cooperation between Turkey and Syria was discussed, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.
Turkey’s growing military presence in Syria has already prompted comments from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. After a series of Israeli airstrikes on Syria hit the Abu al-Duhur airbase on August 18, Netanyahu said that Israel “will not tolerate a Turkish military presence that advances south because it threatens us,” according to Reuters. Turkey and Syria, however, have said that work being done at the base was to repair war-damaged facilities to enable the Syrian Air Force to return there.
