The division, which is planned to be formed, will be specifically assigned to establish security at the Israeli-occupied territories’ eastern border with Jordan, according to reports.
Israel is mulling over the decision after one of its soldiers was killed on Sunday in a shooting operation near the settlement of Mehola in the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land that runs along the West Bank.
The military wing of the Palestinian Hamas Resistance Movement, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility. Al-Qassam said its fighters, based in the occupied West Bank, killed the soldier at point-blank range and safely returned to their bases.
It also said that the operation came in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on al-Tabin School in Gaza City, where more than 100 Palestinians were killed on Saturday (August 10).
The attack in the Jordan Valley has raised fears among Israeli security apparatus that threats are not coming from the outside, but they are emerging in the heart of the West Bank as a new front has already been formed against the regime.
Tensions have remained high in the West Bank ever since the Gaza war broke out in early October. Israeli forces have been engaged in daily raids across the West Bank to crack down against Palestinian youths outraged at the massacre of their countrymen in the besieged Gaza Strip.
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