This is a story that gets little reaction, despite more news coming in from time to time.
This time, it’s from a report, presumably in Hebrew, published in an Israeli military magazine.
The right-wing Israeli website, Arutz Sheva, is reporting here, that the latest edition of the Bemachaneh (On the Base) military magazine says that “Anti-personnel mines have been placed beyond the Golan border fence but on Israel’s side of the border … The mining in the area of the Golan territorial brigade is the first phase of activity that will extend to all of the border covered by the Israel Defense Forces’ 36th Division”.
The report also says that mines “already in place did not go off” during the May 15 protests in which Palestinian and Syrian protesters crossed the Golan and briefly entered the Israeli-controlled town of Majdel Shams, before being returned to Syria. And, it says, this new planting of anti-personnel mines “is in addition to the erection of fences, the digging of trenches and other measures to prevent incursions by demonstrators or other hostile forces in September, when violence is expected to accompany the Palestinian Authority’s announced intent to unilaterally declare a state. Anti-tank mines are also being upgraded or replaced, in the first mining of the area in 10 years“.
UPDATE: The AP is now reporting, on Saturday 13 August, that “An Israeli army magazine says the military is planting new land mines along the border with Syria to dissuade protesters from rushing into the Golan Heights. The army decided to go ahead with the move after older mines failed to detonate when Syrian demonstrators rushed into the border area in June during a protest against Israel’s occupation. Israeli forces opened fire, killing some 20 protesters in efforts to push the crowd back. The mines are also part of beefed-up measures Israel is taking ahead of rallies that Palestinians are planning to hold in September”. This AP report is posted here.
NOTE: Our earlier reports on this story are posted:
17 June – here, and
16 June – here,
And our even earlier posts on this are:
9 June – here;
8 June – here;
and 7 June – here.
Haaretz, meanwhile, is reporting here that the IDF is now preparing for a possible confrontation with the Syrian military, if the killings of civilian protesters, such as occurred in the protests of May 15 and June 5, are repeated in September.
The Haaretz article also reported, however, that “The IDF will not use tanks in the West Bank even if there is an escalation of violence and a resumption of terror attacks, a senior Armored Corps officer said. The army’s assessment, he said, is that unlike during the second intifada, when tanks were used extensively in the territories, particularly during Operation Defensive Shield, ‘Now there are no large terror cells in the field or weapons that require tanks to deal with them’ Bringing tanks into the West Bank is likely to cause a higher number of casualties than necessary, at a time when the IDF will be trying to contain the violence, he said”.
{The related, but separate, analysis for these preparations, which a Haaretz article today called “hysteria”, has been moved to our sister blog, www.palestine-mandate.com, here.}