The IDF began calling up reservists today on emergency orders, as the country eagerly and anxiously awaits the possible beginning of Operation Defensive Shield II. Some 60 tanks entered Kalkilye last night and took up positions in several neighborhoods in the city, in what has become known as Operation Determined Stand. A curfew was declared on the city, and the troops began their house-to-house searches for terrorists, weapons, and explosives. U.S. Army Maj. Bob Bevelacqua, formerly of the Green Berets, told Fox News today, \"What Israel has to do is to take the areas controlled by Hamas, cordon them off, and then start going house to house. If they find someone with a gun, he\'s a bad guy and should be arrested, and if he resists arrests, they should shoot him.\"
IDF forces are also in Jenin, Bethlehem, Tul Karem, and Bituniya, as well as many villages in these regions. Arutz-7\'s Kobi Finkler reports that Ramallah and Hevron are not on the hot list at present, and forces remain outside these cities for the meanwhile. No one is saying how long the forces will remain in these cities that until now have been under PA control, and it could be a matter of weeks or more.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer made sure to announce today that \"there is no intention to establish IDF civil-administrative control over the residents of the Palestinian cities in which the IDF is present in order to fight terror.\" He said that the wave of terror that has \"swept over Israel in recent days... has necessitated deep and thorough IDF action against the terror infrastructures in [these] cities in order to foil attacks\" - but that the army will facilitate routine activities by the PA\'s civilian institutions and international organizations for the Arabs\' needs \"in the fields of infrastructure, education, health, commerce and the ongoing supply of food and water.\" Ben-Eliezer told the Cabinet today that he plans to \"deal with\" the families of suicide terrorists.
Hizbullah fired mortar shells again today, as has been their practice for the last several days; the shells landed south of Kiryat Shmonah, and caused some damage to a building in Kfar Yuval. They were fired from position west of Metullah in the Galilee Panhandle.
IDF forces are also in Jenin, Bethlehem, Tul Karem, and Bituniya, as well as many villages in these regions. Arutz-7\'s Kobi Finkler reports that Ramallah and Hevron are not on the hot list at present, and forces remain outside these cities for the meanwhile. No one is saying how long the forces will remain in these cities that until now have been under PA control, and it could be a matter of weeks or more.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer made sure to announce today that \"there is no intention to establish IDF civil-administrative control over the residents of the Palestinian cities in which the IDF is present in order to fight terror.\" He said that the wave of terror that has \"swept over Israel in recent days... has necessitated deep and thorough IDF action against the terror infrastructures in [these] cities in order to foil attacks\" - but that the army will facilitate routine activities by the PA\'s civilian institutions and international organizations for the Arabs\' needs \"in the fields of infrastructure, education, health, commerce and the ongoing supply of food and water.\" Ben-Eliezer told the Cabinet today that he plans to \"deal with\" the families of suicide terrorists.
Hizbullah fired mortar shells again today, as has been their practice for the last several days; the shells landed south of Kiryat Shmonah, and caused some damage to a building in Kfar Yuval. They were fired from position west of Metullah in the Galilee Panhandle.