The Israel Defense Forces this week carried out its largest exercise in five years in the West Bank ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

The four-day drill consisted of simulating “a variety of scenarios and emergency situations such as settlement infiltrations, abductions of Israeli citizens, bombings, vehicular or shooting attacks, and large-scale riots,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

An assessment of army preparedness was given to IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and head of the Central Command Maj.-Gen. Roni Numa.

Israeli security forces increase their alert level during Jewish holidays.

This week marked the 15th anniversary of the devastating terror attack at the Passover seder in the Park Hotel in Netanya that left 29 people dead and 64 injured. The attack precipitated Operation Defensive Shield, in which the IDF targeted the terror infrastructure built up in the West Bank following Israel’s withdrawal in 1995 as part of the Oslo Accords.

In testimony before the Knesset’s influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said, “there is no doubt that terrorist infrastructures, mostly the established one, and specifically Hamas, will try to agitate the area and carry out attacks” during Passover.

[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Flickr ]