The Israeli military is digging trenches around Jenin and Nablus, two West bank cities that have been hotbeds of Palestinian militants, according to an army magazine published this week.
The military could not immediately confirm the report, but the Palestinian governors of Nablus and Jenin confirmed on Sunday that ditches were being dug in various places around their towns.
Col. Yehuda Katorza, head of the Central Command’s engineering unit, was quoted by the weekly Bamachane as saying the trenches are designed to keep Palestinians from driving explosives-laden vehicles from the towns to Israel.
The move was in line with previous policy, as Israel last year encircled part of the West Bank town of Jericho with trenches. But Katorza said previous attempts were ineffective as the army did not completely encircle the towns, and Palestinians also filled ditches with dirt and drove over them.
This time the intention is to completely encircle the towns, apparently with larger ditches, he said, but the effort has been slowed by a lack of sufficient bulldozers.
Katorza noted that on October 21, two Palestinians from Jenin blew up a car with about 100 kilograms of explosives near a bus in northern Israel, killing 14 people. Digging around the town had begun some days before, but even to date it is only partly encircled by a two-metre -wide trench.
The military also plans to encircle Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, with 57 kilometres of continuous trenches, but work there is slow as well, Katorza said. With digging progressing only at a rate of 100 metres a day, only one kilometre has been completed, he said.
Since Midle East violence erupted two years ago, Israel has kept a chokehold on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, encircling their towns with military checkpoints and more recently occupying them and imposing strict curfews.
The Israelis say the measures are necessary to end a wave of terror attacks. But the Palestinians complain bitterly about the economically devastating travel restrictions, charging that they amount to collective punishment that only increases the motivation for revenge attacks.
”The Israelis are blocking every way for the Palestinians — they have blocked every single road, even unpaved roads through the hills,” said Nablus governor Mahmoud Aloul, referring to both the ditches and previously existing checkpoints. ”It’s another collective punishment”.
Jenin governor Khaider Irshaid also confirmed that trenches had been dug around the town, saying that it ”has become an island surrounded by soldiers in every direction”.
Katorza admitted the trenches would not stop Palestinian attacks from leaving the towns and cities on foot. ”We have other plans for that,” he said. – Sapa-AP