The IDF intends to drastically the number of soldiers guarding communities in Judea and Samaria, senior sources in IDF Central Command informed the heads of the Yesha Council Tuesday morning. In addition, the IDF said that some communities would no longer have any IDF soldiers guarding them.
The sources said the cuts were made necessary by ”budgetary constraints forced upon the IDF” and are to take place within weeks. The IDF denied that the reduction in manpower would affect the security of Jewish reisdents in Judea and Samaria.
Immediately after the IDF passed along the information about the planned cuts, the Yesha Council sent an urgent letter to IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, demanding that the planned cuts be put on hold and that the matter be discussed with the communities’ leaders before any action is taken.
The Yesha Council said that the reduction in the number of soldiers is just the latest in a long list of security cuts that have been carried out in Judea and Samaria.
The Council charged that these cuts were made against a backdrop of a clear and tangible deterioration of the security situation in Judea and Samaria – a deterioration that peaked with the murder of 16-year-old Shlomo Nativ in Bat Ayin last week.
“The ongoing cuts in security elements have crossed the threshold of reasonableness and the new instruction puts lives at real risk,” the Council stated.
The security establishment rejected the Judea and Samaria residents’ complaints that the IDF’s removal of checkpoints created the conditions that led to the terror attack. Senior sources noted that there is no fence around Bat Ayin, and that this made it much more vulnerable to attack.