Video: Lightning strikes Gesher / Gesher security team

Over the course of the night, dozens of thousands of thunderstorms and lightning developed across widespread regions. The weather gradually intensified, beginning in the Arabah and along the coastal plain. Large quantities of rain fell across many areas in the northern and central parts of the country , accompanied by both hail and wind gusts.

Video: Vehicle being rescued after flooding in Tamra / Israel Fire and Rescue Service

Rainfall measurements reached 50 mm (1.97 inches) in Karnei Shomron , 47 mm (1.85 inches) in Mevo Dotan , 39 mm (1.54 inches) in Ariel , approximately 33 mm (1.30 inches) in Haifa , and around 30 mm (1.18 inches) in Modi'in. Substantial rains also began to fall toward the morning in parts of the Negev and the Judean Desert. Water flows started in some Judean Desert wadis and in the Ramat HaNegev and Beersheba areas. Rain totals in these southern areas included: roughly 35 mm (1.38 inches) at the Negev Junction , about 28 mm (1.10 inches) in Beersheba , around 25 mm (0.98 inches) in the Nevatim region , approximately 18 mm (0.71 inches) in Mitzpe Ramon , about 6 mm (0.24 inches) in Yotvata , and even 1.5 mm (0.06 inches) in Paran.

Video: Flooding in southern Israel / Yuval Tobol

In the south, first responder teams responded to the weather conditions by operating in several simultaneous rescue incidents. At the Yattir Stream, a truck that had been swept away by a flash flood was rescued. Crews from the Beersheba and Hura stations executed complicated rescue procedures. The individual who was trapped was rescued in good condition and was transferred to Magen David Adom teams for ongoing medical care. On Highway 358, a person was rescued from a vehicle after flood flows made further driving impossible. Additionally, in the Ramot neighborhood of Beersheba, Israel Fire and Rescue Services teams rescued two vehicles stranded by flooding on Ben Zvi Boulevard.

Video: Binyamin Regional Council flooding / Credit: Usage under Israel's Intellectual Property Law Article 27a

In the Northern District, Fire and Rescue Services and Rescue crews from the Central Galilee station, supported by the Special Rescue Unit, rescued two trapped persons from an off-road vehicle that became stuck in a channel near Highway 70 in the Tamra area. Strong water runoff had dragged the vehicle into that location. The firefighters secured the vehicle using the fire truck , and subsequently carried out a rescue operation using ropes , successfully extracting the driver and passenger to safety.

Video: Flooding in northern Israel / Credit: Social media

From the overnight hours until now, Magen David Adom teams were also dispatched to multiple reports of house floods and vehicles stuck in puddles. Magen David Adom teams were sent to incidents involving people trapped in cars in puddles and house floods in Kiryat Gat, Shfaram, Modi'in Illit, Kiryat Motzkin, Beit Shemesh, Beersheba, Rahat, Kafr Qasim, and Tirat Carmel. After an assessment, none of the individuals required medical treatment.

Video: Flooding in northern Israel's Nesher town / Credit: Social media

Rains are expected to continue falling from the north to the northern Negev over the next few hours , with some being very powerful. There remains a significant risk of flash floods in the Judean Desert and Dead Sea wadis , as well as in the Negev and Arabah. There is also a risk of flooding in the coastal plain, the north, and the central mountains. Only during the latter half of Tuesday will the rains substantially decrease , practically ceasing entirely in the evening.

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Johnson's visit to Ariel received approval from the White House and State Department and was kept secret due to security sensitivities.

The historic event was attended by all the heads of authorities in Judea and Samaria as well as US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. As revealed in Israel Hayom, Huckabee conducted his own historic visit upon arriving in the country to the Biblical Shiloh site, not far from Ariel.

Yesha Council Chairman Israel Ganz praised Johnson for his participation in the event. Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan presented him with a gift and Ariel Mayor Yair Chetboun thanked the American senior official for coming to the capital of Samaria.

Under the US constitution, the speaker of the House of Representatives is second in line for the presidency, right after the vice president.  It should be noted that at the end of Donald Trump's first term, then-American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Samaria. Now, as mentioned, Johnson arrives, making him the most senior US official to visit the area.

According to Marc Zell, the Republican Party Chairman in Israel, Speaker Mike Johnson said that the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish people. According to Zell, "he criticized those erstwhile allies of Israel who are calling to recognize a Palestinian state. He closed with a statement that as the US begins to celebrate its 250th anniversary, the US should use the occasion to remind the American people of its Judeo-Christian foundations that were formed here in the Land of Israel.

Speaker Mike Johnson, now addressing the conference in Ariel, is the highest ranking U.S. federal official to visit Judea and Samaria. Amazing! pic.twitter.com/qNeu1yFwCI

— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) August 4, 2025

The settlement umbrella group Yesha Council, which worked behind the scenes to advance the visit in recent months, views Johnson's arrival as a step toward legitimizing Israeli settlement that has been controversial for many years. The council pushed for the Knesset's declarative decision two weeks ago to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, and the council believes this visit represents an American signal that the administration does not rule out the sovereignty move.

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Azulay left behind his wife Ruth, parents and siblings. The reserve soldier, an engineering equipment operator in the Southern Command Engineering Unit, fell in battle in southern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, after fighting terrorists who attempted to kidnap him. Security forces in the area opened fire on the terrorists, hit several of them and thwarted the kidnapping. He is the 31st casualty from Samaria Regional Council in the war.

Abraham grew up in Elazar settlement, arrived at Yitzhar settlement as a teenager, established a Hebrew labor company, married and built his home at Shaked Farm in the Yitzhar Hills. He was among dozens of Yitzhar residents who came to assist the IDF in the Gaza Strip operating heavy mechanical engineering equipment.

Abraham is the third fallen soldier from Yitzhar settlement in the Iron Swords War. About a year and a half ago, soldier Staff Sergeant Yehonatan Lober fell in battle in southern Gaza Strip, and about 8 months ago, soldier Sergeant Shneur Zalman Cohen fell in northern Gaza Strip.

"He was among our finest sons"

Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan eulogized him, saying, "Abraham, may his memory be blessed, was a hero, a true pioneer, a builder of hills and farms, worked in preparation and development of farms and road paving in Samaria, devoted entirely to settling the Land of Israel and defending the Land of Israel, came to Samaria as a teenager to build Samaria and was among our finest sons who build the hills with courage and love."

"Abraham is the 31st fallen soldier in the Iron Swords War in the council, gave his life for the people and the land, while doing what he loved and believed in – building the land. The Samaria Regional Council family will accompany beloved Ruth, with everything she needs from the settlement family in Samaria and the entire Yitzhar community mourns and embraces the Azulay families."

Gilad Ach, company commander, eulogized him, saying, "Abraham Azulay served as a sniper in the company I commanded in the first months of the war, a strong young man who always strived to be at the heart of action, always with ideas for improvement. With the beginning of the attack on Lebanon and the destruction of enemy villages adjacent to the fence in October 2024, he offered himself and his capabilities to remove the murderous threat of Hezbollah from northern communities. He could not bear the fact that he was not drafted. Values-driven, strong, with countless abilities, connected to the land – thus he lived and thus he fell on his watch. Your friends and commanders from the 7106th Support Company love you."

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A tragedy within a tragedy: Two weeks after the brutal terrorist attack in which Tze'elah Gez was murdered, the baby she was carrying, named Rabid Chaim before his brit milah so people could pray for his recovery, died Thursday morning.

The terrorist attack occurred two weeks ago, as Tze'elah and her husband, Hannanel, were driving from their home in the settlement of Bruchin to the hospital for the birth of their child. A terrorist opened fire on their vehicle, fatally wounding Tze'elah. Emergency responders made repeated attempts to resuscitate her at the scene and in hospital in a desperate bid to save the unborn baby.

Although doctors managed to revive the newborn shortly after delivery, his prospects were bleak from the beginning. Prolonged time without oxygen had caused severe and likely irreversible harm. For two weeks, medical teams fought to stabilize and improve his condition.

Last week, in an interview with Israel Hayom, Hannanel Gaz said his son was "between life and death." The family clung to hope, but by Thursday morning, doctors were forced to pronounce the infant's death, marking him as another victim of the brutal terrorist attack.

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The attack occurred around 10 p.m., when gunmen opened fire on several vehicles near a junction, striking the couple – parents of three children – who were rushing to the hospital for the birth of their fourth child. She was critically wounded while Hananel, who suffered light injuries, desperately tried to treat her wounds and stop the bleeding. Both were evacuated to the hospital where medical teams managed to deliver the baby, who remains in critical condition.

Video: The scene of the attack / Credit: MDA

IDF forces were immediately deployed to the area, including Israeli Air Force units, the elite Shaldag commando unit, Paratroopers Reconnaissance Battalion, Duvdevan special forces, and commando units in training. The manhunt is being led by Ephraim Brigade Commander Faiz Fares, who assumed his position just one day earlier. Simultaneously, security forces imposed a closure on the nearby village of Brukin and restricted movement in all western Samaria settlements and industrial zones in Barkan and Ariel.

Tragically, about a year ago, Gez, who worked as a motor therapist, expressed her feelings of vulnerability in a social media post, writing, "It's an unsafe period. The feeling that nowhere is protected, yet we continue to go out, work, live. What helps you leave home and not avoid going out?"

President Isaac Herzog shared his condolences, writing, "The murder of Tze'elah Gez, on her way to the delivery room, is a heinous act of terror that chills every heart. At the very moment of life – a life was cruelly taken. My heart is with the grieving family and with all her loved ones who are deeply shocked. We are all praying now for the well-being of the baby and for the recovery of her wounded husband Hananel. Terror will not defeat the Israeli spirit. We will pursue terror everywhere, and we will not rest. May her memory be blessed!"

Meital Ben Yosef, chairperson of the Bruchin committee, expressed the community's grief, saying, "Our hearts are broken. The entire Bruchin settlement is mourning and grieving the murder of our friend Tzalah in the deadly attack. We send our deepest condolences to the Gez family, and hope for a full recovery for the father of the family. Again we are forced to pay a bloody price for being Jews living in our land. But the blood of our brothers will not be abandoned – we will continue to build, to hold on to the land, and to increase the light and life here in Bruchin and in all parts of the country. On behalf of the residents of Bruchin, I ask everyone to pray for the recovery of the father and the baby and to promise – you will not remain alone. We are all with you."

In response to the attack, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan cut short his diplomatic meetings at the US Senate in Washington and immediately began returning to Israel.

"A devoted, beloved, and cheerful woman, who only wanted to live a quiet life – and was murdered on her way to bring life. Jewish blood cannot be spilled like water," Dagan said after the attack. "This is a recurring attack site, and Israel's response cannot be limited to a press release. I demand that the security system operate in this area as they do in Geza – flatten the terror nests. We are not willing to return to October 6, and this pain is unbearable."

Dagan added, "The villages that repeatedly produce attackers cannot continue as usual. The fate of Brukin and Kafr al-Dik should be the same as Khan Yunis and Rafah. We can no longer rely on intelligence alone. This is a route from which four attacks have already emerged – this place needs to look like Jabaliya. Any normal country would not allow such an area to continue existing without a response – and we expect the senior command to change its approach. The settlement in Samaria will not break. We will continue to build, we will continue to hold onto our land – and we will settle Samaria, we will defeat terror."

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The IDF has announced the deaths of three soldiers, two in a ramming attack in Samaria and one during fighting in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel, 20, from Tel Zion, and Staff Sgt. Diego Shvisha Harsaj, 20, from Tel Aviv – infantrymen in the Kfir Brigade's Nahshon Battalion – sustained critical injuries after a terrorist rammed into them outside Nablus on Wednesday night. Both soon after succumbed to their injuries.

A third soldier, Staff Sgt. Yedidya Azugi, 21, of the Paratrooper Brigade's 101st Battalion, was killed while fighting terrorists in Rafah.

Azugi's death brings the death toll of the IDF ground campaign against Hamas to 292.

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Uzi Rubin is the winner of the Israel Defense Prize. In the various positions he has held in the defense establishment, he has been required to contend with the grave threats posed by ballistic missiles armed with heavy warheads and with ranges of hundreds of kilometers. He suggests that the IDF and the defense establishment would do well not to take lightly the few homemade rockets, some of which malfunctioned, that the Palestinians have in recent months tried to launch towards various Jewish communities bordering on northern Samaria and the adjacent Gilboa mountain range.

Video: IDF investigating alleged rocket fire from Jenin / Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

"That is precisely how it began in Gaza", recalls the man who headed the Homa (rampart) Administration, also referred to as the IMDO or Israel Missile Defense Organization (which was responsible for the development of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system), and currently serves as an expert on the missile threat and defense against it at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). Rubin's deja-vu is firmly embedded in the striking similarity between what is occurring now in Judea and Samaria and what happened in the Gaza Strip back in 2000-2002.

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"There too it began with shoddy homemade production, in garages and workshops. The locals in Gaza removed explosives from mines, mixed together makeshift explosives, which initially blew up on launch, and worked with hollow pipes from whatever materials they could lay their hands on. Gradually, they began to improve their capabilities and performance. The first Hamas rocket was launched at the town of Sderot on April 16, 2001."

In Gaza, recalls Rubin, they first began to manufacture propellants from a mixture of sugar and chemical fertilizers. The production process was fairly simple and was often carried out in domestic kitchens. They used irrigation pipes, traffic signal poles, or other similar tubular objects for the rocket airframe, which were readily available within the Gaza Strip. The rocket warhead was equipped with standard explosive material from the remains of munitions and mines collected in the field, or from improvised explosives. At the workshops in the Gaza Strip, they used lathes to produce stabilizer fins and nozzles from sheets of tin, and these parts were then welded together and painted.

The initial manufacture was improvised using any basic materials locally available. The rockets were named Qassam after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the radical Muslim preacher who led the local struggle against both the colonial mandate forces in the Levant in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the fierce opposition to the nascent Zionist movement at the time. Israel encountered much difficulty in its efforts to contend with the initial Qassam rockets, as they were small, lightweight (up to 5kg), and at the time were more similar to shoulder-fired man-portable rockets, that were readily transported from place to place.

"Now a similar process might well be taking place in Judea and Samaria," warns Rubin. "Though it might currently appear to be extremely insignificant and not threatening, but that is exactly how it began there too. We need to be extremely alert and to kill it off at birth," he recommends and then refers back to Gaza: "Just look and see to what dimensions the rocket threat in the south has developed."

In contrast to many of the shooting and ramming attacks in recent years, the domestic manufacture of rockets in Judea and Samaria, mainly in the Jenin and northern Samaria areas, the IDF categorizes as organized and guided terrorism rather than lone-wolf attacks. The two factors that are pushing, encouraging, and funding the attempt to develop a credible rocket threat against Israel, not only from the Gaza Strip but also from Judea and Samaria, are Iran and Hamas. For the moment, they are failing in their mission, but they are far from giving up.

The know-how, according to army experts, comes from the Gaza Strip: somebody is taking the trouble to equip the terrorists in northern Samaria with the right technology, which is adequately simple, and if needs be also to refer them to the relevant websites. According to the IDF, there is an abundance of motivation, perhaps at its highest level ever, and this is also true of their ability to conceal these efforts: Judea and Samaria covers an area that is 16 times larger than the Gaza Strip and it encompasses a broad variety of terrain features, plains and mountains, ravines, caves, and densely-populated areas, and the homemade rockets that the Palestinians are now producing in Judea and Samaria are easily transportable and can be readily smuggled and concealed in a variety of hiding places. Only last week was an attempt to smuggle arms thwarted in the northern Jordan Valley area, the specific details of which are still subject to a gag order.

A declaration of intentions

Hamas and Iran, whom Israel blames for being responsible for the rocket capability that the Palestinians are attempting to establish now in Judea and Samaria too, don't even bother to hide their intentions. Senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, who is responsible for the organization's military wing activity in Judea and Samaria, has expressed a hope in the past that "the resistance in Judea & Samaria will succeed in obtaining rockets." And when asked if this is actually possible, he responded that "In the Gaza Strip, rockets were manufactured under blockade, so in the West Bank too, we will be able to overcome all the difficulties and will succeed in producing rockets."

Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also threatened last summer to turn Judea and Samaria into a base for launching rockets at Israel. "Just as Gaza is armed", explained Salami, "so too we can arm the West Bank... There is no difference between these two areas of land. Nowadays, it is much easier to obtain weapons than in the past and it is impossible to limit the transfer of technology."

If we are to take Salami seriously, then it is apparently no coincidence that the first public exposure after many years of an attempt to manufacture both rockets and launchers was connected to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an organization that operates under Iranian patronage. This information was exposed by the head of Israel's Security Agency, or Shin Bet, Ronen Bar. Bar disclosed that Tareq Az-Aladin, a senior PIJ operative in Judea and Samaria who was targeted by Israel, tried to establish a network for launching improvised rockets from Judea & Samaria into Israel and that at least one out of 20 cells that Aladin controlled was already in the process of manufacturing rockets and launchers, with a view to firing them on targets in Israel. It is now known that one of the targets was the town of Afula.

In the last three months alone, six Palestinian announcements have been made regarding rocket launches from the Jenin area towards nearby Israeli communities, mainly Ram-On and Shaked. In all these instances, an organization calling itself the "El'Ayash Battalions", which is associated with the Hamas military wing, claimed responsibility. In five of these incidents, rocket remains were found, and these all involved primitive improvised rockets, with a limited capability, and despite this Israel is regarding this chain of rocket launching events as a declaration of intentions.

The first documented incident occurred on May 8, when a rocket was fired from the village of Nazlet Zeid in northern Samaria towards the Jewish community of Shaked, and it exploded at the point where it was launched. On Jerusalem Day this year, the Shin Bet located a rocket in Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem and arrested a Palestinian terrorist from the village of Ajjul, who was planning to launch it at the Israelis celebrating the Flag Parade. In late June, the El'Ayash Battalions failed in their attempt to launch another rocket from Jenin towards the moshav of Ram-On, and on July 10, the organization claimed that it had launched two rockets from Jenin at Shaked, the Jewish community located in northern Samaria. In this case, two launchers were found along with the remains of rockets that had actually been fired, but which failed to reach their destination. On the following day, an improvised rocket was fired from the village of Faqu'a near kibbutz Ma'ale Gilboa, but it exploded in the air, failing to cause any damage.

This recent spate of rocket launches comes after 15 years of quiet in Judea and Samaria, in relation to rocket fire. Prior to this, the history of rocket fire in Judea and Samaria was divided into two main periods: The initial years following the Six-Day War and the period of the Second Intifada. Then, unlike today, this involved slightly more professional rockets, usually 107 mm rockets, with a range of 8-9 km. Some of them were of Chinese manufacture and some were smuggled here from Jordan.

Touch and go

The first rockets were fired after the Six-Day War. On August 26, 1969, three of them were launched at Jerusalem. One landed near Ganei Yehuda, the second in the Qatamon neighborhood, and the third in an abandoned field. The rockets were launched from Beit Sahour, and following sweeps conducted in the area, a further 16 launchers were found, ready for operation. In December 1970, two rockets launched from the vicinity of the village of Batir hit a house on Hatayyasim Street in Jerusalem. Four women, resident in the building at the time, were miraculously saved, but then in July 1971, the luck ran out. Four rockets fired from Deir Balut in the Ramallah area hit the Beit Rivkah Hospital for the chronically ill in Petach Tiqva, killing three women and a five-year-old girl.

Additional efforts were documented throughout the period of the Second Intifada and thereafter. Then too, Jenin was the focus of the rocket fire. Just prior to Operation "Defensive Shield" the IDF detained a truck near the city carrying rockets wrapped in canvas. In 2005, the Shin Bet succeeded in taking apart eight Hamas and PIJ cells dealing, among others, with the development of rocket-related capabilities. The target, even back then, was Afula, which is clearly visible from Jenin. One year later, in 2006, launchers of two rockets which were fired towards the settlement of Avnei Hafetz, but missed their target, were found in the Tulkarm area. In 2008, a rocket manufacturing workshop was uncovered in the Nablus casbah.

Now, a decade and a half later, intelligence experts assess that the attempted rocket launches we have seen over the last three months or so — will continue.

Major General (res.) Uzi Dayan, the former Deputy Chief of the General Staff, who also served as the Commander of the IDF Central Command and the Head of the National Security Council, also recommends that we should not sneeze at this renewed threat. "These are attacks that can be easily perpetrated. You don't even need a vehicle for them. This is a prime example of 'fire and forget'. The domestic rockets are made of a hollow tube, a rocket motor, and explosives. You simply position them in a hiding place and go to sleep. The timer then does the rest of the work.

"I am not revealing any state secrets here, but this is how it has worked for a number of years already. The capabilities are currently rather poor, but the potential for expansion is quite significant, and as opposed to Gaza — it may be effective against locations such as Netanya or Herzliya, and from much closer ranges.

"It might not be an existential or strategic threat, but with today's mindset in Israel, and the raw nerves we live on, everything is rapidly intensified. As Israelis don't simply make do with security. They also seek a sense of security, and this is something that is extremely vulnerable to the rocket threat. It might easily become very tangible and dangerous too, once the rockets are aimed at large population centers such as Afula or Hadera, and there is no need for any degree of accuracy here, as whatever happens the rockets will fall 'within' the target area. This is what they are aiming for."

How can we present this, what needs to be done to deal with this potential threat?
"Firstly, it is necessary to continue to prevent the smuggling activity. It is relatively easy to smuggle 107 mm Katyusha rockets, the main ones that have been in use here in recent years. Secondly — within Judea and Samaria the IDF really needs to deploy more mobile checkpoints rather than fixed ones that remain in the same location for weeks on end. I am talking about mobile checkpoints that move from place to place once every few hours. This is most effective and works not only against the rocket threat but also against vehicles used by terrorists for shooting attacks. Obviously, there is also a need for intelligence — we just had Operation Home and Garden, and now we need to make 'Home and Garden visits' and to look for workshops and machine shops dealing with rocket production, not only in Area A but also in Areas B & C."

Q: From where do they obtain the know-how to build the rockets?

"From Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, from Gaza, from Iran, from Jordan, and from social media. Almost everything you need to know is out there."

"A paltry threat"

Dayan warns of the possibility that not only Palestinians from Judea and Samaria but also hostile elements from among Israeli Arabs might try their hand at producing rockets. "Israeli Arab elements", Dayan mentions, "have unfortunately been involved or helped or actually carried out other forms of terrorist attacks, and they might also find the use of rockets to be an attractive threat to attain their goals too."
Major General (res.) Gadi Shamni, a former Commander of the IDF Central Command, is also adamant that the rocket threat from Judea and Samaria is not something to be brushed aside. "This is a serious threat", he says, "not in terms of the damage, but the potential disruption of regular life in the homefront.

I was commander of the IDF Gaza Division in 2003-2004. The Qassam rockets were primitive tubes from road signs with a small amount of explosive, but they made a terrible noise, causing major disruption to routine life, and on occasions they did actually hit, causing physical damage. We used to conduct raids and destroy machine shops, but we lacked the permanent control over the territory, so we were not able to genuinely disrupt the terrorists' efforts to build up their weapons capabilities, which has reached the proportions it has today.

"In Judea and Samaria the conditions are now much better," says Shamni, "as the IDF has a permanent presence on the ground. The most problematic area is in northern Samaria. We may have departed from there, but we haven't really left the place. The Disengagement Plan was implemented, but the IDF remained there and now the residents of Homesh are returning there. In 2008, when I was still in the army, the 'Jenin Pilot', was just beginning. We tried to give the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Police, and its security forces more freedom to maneuver and freedom of action, based on the understanding that there were no longer any Israeli settlements there (these were uprooted as part of the Disengagement Plan – N.S.), but in 2009, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power, the 'Jenin Pilot' slowly died out. The prime minister did not want to do anything to strengthen the Palestinian Authority (PA). This is his familiar policy of exploiting the rivalry between Hamas and the PA; to further entrench the split between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the PA in the West Bank, in order to weaken Mahmoud Abbas and to maintain the current standstill, which is ostensibly 'good' for Israel.

"The policymakers then imposed a veto on any efforts to bolster the PA's intelligence capabilities, including their equipment in their armored vehicles and their ability to take part in training sessions in Jordan. Many efforts that had been ongoing until that point, together with both the Americans and the Jordanians, in essence were discontinued. This is how the vacuum was formed into which both Hamas and the PIJ were sucked, and now, as a result, the Jenin area is essentially controlled by the radical forces, who are seeking to gradually build a credible rocket threat."

Shamni asks us all to imagine a situation whereby once a month the Palestinian terrorist organizations succeed in firing just a few rockets into Israeli territory, "They might or might not actually hit. Does anybody really believe that the IDF will be able to just sit idly by? This would require the State of Israel to invest vast amounts of resources to contend with a threat that is essentially almost non-existent, a really paltry threat, but at the same time a threat that simply cannot be ignored as the public would be overwhelmed by anxiety."

He believes that in the long term, it is in Israel's interest to ensure that in the Jenin area, and other locations too, the PA has a durable presence, based on firm economic legs and the ability to govern and impose its control over the area. "I am aware of the serious concern over 'Gaza-ization' and agree that the fact that the IDF is doing its utmost to prevent this is a key factor in dramatically slowing down the development of this scenario, but in my opinion, the current situation will not prevail over the course of time. Eventually, this will blow up in our faces. It would be highly advisable to engage in an effort right now, or in the near future, to build independent capabilities of those Palestinians who do have a clear interest in preventing hostile activity and acts of terrorism, not to mention the threat of rocket attacks on Israel."

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Hardly anyone was surprised by the arrest raid conducted by the IDF in Jenin on Monday. The only surprise, perhaps, was the fact that it happened only now.

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Security forces have been conducting an anti-terrorism campaign in the West Bank for a year and a half. It began with Jenin, then Nablus, and most recently, the Tulkram area. These areas are known to be strongholds for terrorism, especially in the refugee camp in Jenin and the kasbah in Nablus, and to a lesser extent in other cities and villages.

Until two years ago, such activities were largely led by the Palestinian Authority. The IDF only got involved in exceptional cases that involved senior terrorists or in case of danger of an immediate attack.

But then, due to a series of internal processes, from political power struggles to economic conflicts, the governance of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces deteriorated to almost non-existent. It created a vacuum that terror organizations seized upon, led by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the local Lion's Den group.

The matter led to an increase in terror attacks, leaving the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency no choice but to increase their activity in the region significantly. Israel now conducts almost nightly arrest raids in the area, and lately during the day as well for an element of surprise.

But while the operations usually progress as smoothly as possible, Monday's raid got complicated. The forces were detected, fired at, and seven fighters were injured. On the Palestinian side, five were killed and dozens injured.

The IDF was forced to use attack aircraft for the first time in decades to provide cover and rescue the soldiers. The event reflects the rising level of violence in the region and the need for heavier measures.

The military should consider upgrading the soldiers' weapons to ensure their safety, even at the cost of making them heavier and slower.

The time has come for a more extensive operation in northern Samaria. There is no need to overtake the area, but to position large forces and maximally use our intelligence and operational capabilities in order to reach the most number of terrorists and those linked to terrorism in the shortest time possible.

Such an option has been on the table for over a year, but it seems that now is the time to implement it.

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An Israeli soldier was lightly injured in a shooting attack in Samaria overnight Friday. 

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He was hit with shrapnel in the leg and received immediate medical attention. Five bullets were fired at the fighters from the direction of the Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf.

In a separate incident on Thursday evening, a Palestinian father and his three-year-old son were injured in an exchange of gunfire between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli troops near the settlement of Neve Tsuf, also known as Halamish. The two, in critical condition, were taken by helicopter to a hospital.

The military said in a statement that "as a result of the gunfire by the [IDF] forces, two Palestinians were hurt." It "regretted the harm" caused to the civilians and said that an investigation into the incident was underway.

The Magen David emergency service said in a statement, "At 20:52 a report was received of two shooting victims on Route 465 near Halamish. MDA medics and paramedics in cooperation with the IDF medical force are providing medical treatment on the spot to two wounded Palestinians, including a 3-year-old boy in critical condition and a 40-year-old man in serious condition."The IDF confirmed that the shooting attack was aimed "at a military position near the settlement of Neve Tsuf in the area of the Ephraim Bridge."

Video: TPS / Segev Segal/Shlomi Kreutenhaimer

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Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians during a raid in the West Bank early on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said, in what Army Radio described as a large-scale operation against militants.

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No Israeli troops were hurt in the operation, which took place in Jenin and Nablus. A bomb manufacturing lab was discovered with assembled explosive devices. Arms were also seized during the raids, which included several arrests.

The Israeli military did not immediately release details. Army Radio said hundreds of soldiers took part in the pre-dawn raid and that the three Palestinians killed were terrorists who had exchanged fire with the forces.

No armed group immediately claimed the men killed in the Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, an area where Israeli forces have mounted frequent raids over the past year.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the Israeli raid.

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