IDF General Nitzan Alon
IDF General Nitzan AlonYossi Zeliger/Flash 90

The head of the IDF's Central Command, Gen. Nitzan Alon, held a meeting Thursday morning with Jewish community leaders in Judea and Samaria, as well as the heads of the Yesha Council, in light of the recent spate of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks in the region.

General Alon provided an update on how the IDF and security forces have expanded their operations to counter the unrest, including an increased presence on the roads and at public transportation stops - where the recent vehicular and stabbing attacks by Islamist terrorists have taken place.

He cautioned community leaders that the current escalation would get worse, but assured them it would not reach the levels of violence seen in 2000, when the so-called Second Intifada broke out. There has been much speculation that the riots and lone-wolf terror attacks of the past weeks and months could be a prelude to a "third intifada" - something security officials have been keen to play down.

"That reality will not return because the generation which remembers (Operation) Defensive Shield doesn't want to go back to that," Alon said, referring to the 2002 IDF military operation in Judea and Samaria which gutted the terrorist infrastructure there in response to a wave of bloody suicide bombings and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians.

However, he acknowledged that "there is definitely fermentation (of violence) and a rise in the level of terrorist activity" in Judea  and Samaria, and vowed not to neglect his duty to respond to Arab violence.

Gen. Alon emphasized the importance of cooperation between the IDF and local security officers in individual communities to help combat security threats and general unrest.

Community leaders, for their part, updated Alon on the security needs of local communities and how security measures are effecting day-to-day life in the region, and thanked him on behalf of residents for the work of the IDF in combating terrorism.