The Israeli army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir — an area of about 300 dunams (74 acres) — over the past three days, following a shooting attack in the area last week carried out by a resident, according to Sunday reports in Palestinian media.
In addition, a three-day curfew was imposed on the village, which was lifted Sunday morning, according to the reports.
On Thursday night, the chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, during a visit to the scene of the shooting, said that al-Mughayyir would “pay a heavy price” for the attack the previous day, in what appears to be a declaration of collective punishment on towns where attacks or attackers come from.
“Every village and every enemy needs to know that if they carry out an attack against [Israeli] residents, they will pay a heavy price; they will experience a curfew, they will experience a closure, and they will experience ‘shaping operations,'” he said, apparently referring to the uprooting of the trees.
A “shaping operation” in military terms refers to efforts to create or preserve advantageous conditions for future operations by affecting enemy vulnerabilities.
“We will now focus our effort… on the village of al-Mughayir, which has carried out quite a few attacks recently; we are now locking in on this village,” Bluth said, according to remarks published by the IDF.
“We will also deliver this message to the village: The village carries out an attack, no problem; you want a spotlight on you, we know how to shine a spotlight. The first mission is to hunt down and thwart the cell and the terrorist,” he said.
“The second mission is to carry out ‘shaping operations’ here… so that everyone will be deterred, and not only this village, but any village that tries to raise a hand against any of the [Israeli] residents,” Bluth added.
On Wednesday, Israeli reserve soldiers from a rapid response team made up of residents of local settlements detained a Palestinian suspected of opening fire on a group of Israeli civilians near the settlement of Adei Ad earlier in the day, the military said.
The 30-year-old Palestinian, a resident of al-Mughayyir, had allegedly fired at the Israelis, without hitting any, before engaging in a physical altercation during which an Israeli man was lightly hurt.
He was nabbed several hours later, according to a military official.
During an initial interrogation by the Shin Bet, the suspect provided “findings that tied him to the attack,” the security agency said. Israeli forces also found a handgun suspected to have been used in the attack, the IDF and police added.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the start of the Gaza war that began with Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023, attack.
Since then, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.
The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks. During the same period, 53 others, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
Settler attacks on Palestinians throughout the West Bank have also been taking place frequently, largely with impunity, sparking mounting sanctions from Western governments.