A scene from the IDF’s largest training exercise in Judea and Samaria of the past five years. Photo: IDF via Twitter.

JNS.org –  As Passover approaches, Israeli military week completed this week its largest training exercise in the past five years in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

The military exercise involved hundreds of IDF troops, who carried out various combat and emergency simulations, including “abductions of Israeli citizens, bombings, vehicular or shooting attacks and large-scale riots,” reported the Jerusalem Post.

Throughout the exercise, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and Commander of the Central Command Maj.-Gen. Roni Numa received assessments of the troops’ intelligence capabilities in emergency situations.

Although it is standard procedure for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to conduct drills prior to the beginning of Jewish holidays, Shin Bet security agency Director Nadav Argaman has warned that the current relatively calm security situation in Judea and Samaria is “deceiving,” and that “Hamas and other organized terror cells will try to carry out attacks over the Passover holiday.”

The simulation ended on the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Defensive Shield, which was launched during the second intifada and was the largest IDF operation in Judea and Samaria since the 1967 Six-Day War.