Halting the escalation: Entry of Palestinian workers into communities in Judea and Samaria prohibited
Following a series of security incidents, the Central Command Commander announced a ban on the entry of workers into communities in Judea and Samaria. Industrial zones are excluded, and construction sites can be exempted at the request of the communities.
Against the backdrop of the security escalation in recent days, the Commander of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, ordered today, Sunday, a sweeping ban on the entry of Palestinian workers into Israeli communities throughout Judea and Samaria.
The directive, provided by a security source, is intended to minimize friction between the populations. The only exception at this stage is for industrial zones, with the note that construction sites may also be exempted based on specific requests from the communities.
This exceptional step comes following a series of serious security incidents in the area, including a severe event that occurred yesterday evening near a farm in the area of Susya in the South Hebron Hills Regional Council.
During the incident, a physical confrontation developed in the grazing area between a local resident, a 25-year-old active-duty IDF soldier who was on leave, and a Palestinian who arrived at the scene. During the confrontation, the Palestinian wounded the soldier in the head with a stone and snatched his military weapon. Immediately afterward, the attacker fired toward a nearby farm and fled the scene while armed.
The farmer was moderately wounded by the stone impact, received initial medical treatment from Magen David Adom (MDA) teams at the scene, and was subsequently evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. Concurrently, large forces of the IDF and Border Police launched an extensive manhunt, at the end of which both the suspect and the stolen weapon were located.
Parallel to the incident in Susya, security forces continued extensive counter-terrorism activity throughout Judea and Samaria: over the past 24 hours, more than 70 wanted persons were arrested and hundreds of suspects were detained for questioning. The operation focused on several central hubs and included a targeted raid on the village from which the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack the day before yesterday originated.
