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Central Command

The Central Command ( abbreviated as : PAKMAZ ) was one of the IDF’s four regional commands and was responsible for about a third of Israel’s territory. The command’s headquarters are located in Jerusalem. IDF forces under the Central Command operate 24/7, conducting counterterrorism activities to thwart terrorist infrastructure, locate weapons, and apprehend wanted suspects who take part in terrorist activity. The forces in the region are always vigilant, ready to effectively thwart terrorist attacks against the area’s residents.

The command was responsible for all the units and brigades located in Iosh ( Judea and Samaria region ), Jerusalem , Hasharon , Gush Dan and the Lowlands. The command headquarters was located in the north of Jerusalem between the Neve Ya'akov and Shuafat neighborhoods . The headquarters camp used to be called " Kfir Fortress ", but today its name was " Nehemiah Camp ", after Major General Nehemiah Tamari , who was killed on the spot in a helicopter crash in 1994 . At the command, IDF forces work 24/7 to thwart terrorist infrastructures, seize weapons and arrest wanted persons engaged in popular and criminal terrorism. The forces at the Central Command are on alert at all times in order to thwart terrorist attacks and protect the residents of the sector in the best possible way. The command was directly subordinated to the Judea and Samaria Division and under it are six regional divisions: Menashe, Samaria, Ephraim, Benjamin, Etzion, Yehuda.

Another spatial division was the Bekaa and Emekim division which strengthens and protects the Israeli border with Jordan. Under the brigade sit the two border infantry battalions, the Lions of the Jordan and the Bekaa Lions and the 'Ozbet Hash' division and under it two regular organic brigades - paratroopers, commandos and 5 reserve brigades of the division.

The Judea and Samaria Division reports to the Central Command together with the six regional brigades under it: the Menashe Brigade, the Shomron Brigade, the Ephraim Brigade, the Benyamin Brigade, the Etzion Brigade and the Judea Brigade. An additional regional brigade under the command was the Valley Brigade, which was located along the border between Israel and Jordan. The brigade includes two battalions: the 41st Lions of the Jordan Valley Battalion and the 47th Lionets of the Valley Battalion.

The Fire Formation Division and the Lachish Command Training Center are also under the Central Command. The Fire Formation Division includes two active duty ‘organic’ brigades: the Paratroopers Brigade and the Commando Brigade, as well as five reserve brigades. The Lachish Command Training Center was where all forces that begin operational activity in the Judea and Samaria and Jordan Valley areas train in accordance with the challenges they are expected to face in the area of the command.

There are 9 departments in the Central Command, each led by an officer ranking Colonel: intelligence, engineering, technology and maintenance, logistics, human resources, operations, medicine, communication, and “Keshet Tzvaim." The departments and their soldiers oversee the ongoing activities in the region and are always working to draw and implement lessons and initiate new projects. Since the First Intifada, the command has focused mainly on routine security in its region.

Under the command was also the command training base (BAP) in Lachish, and all the forces that enter into operational employment in the Judea and Samaria sector or the Bekaa are trained there in accordance with the challenges expected for the force in the command sector. for combat and the operational driving school. The command has nine divisions, each of which was headed by an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel: intelligence, engineering, technology and maintenance, logistics, triads, operations, medicine, communications and spectrum. The wings and their soldiers have the ability to plan, include, and have a spatial vision of what was happening in the entire command sector, and accordingly they are constantly working on efficiency, drawing lessons and initiating new projects.

The wars and operations in which the command took part are - the war of liberation, the six-day war, the war of attrition, the protective wall, the first intifada. Since the first intifada, the command focuses mainly on ongoing security in its sector. In the war of liberation, the command was responsible for the war against Jordan , mainly for the road to Jerusalem and the city itself, as well as for the occupation of the small triangle , Lod and Ramla. In the Six Day War, the command was responsible for the occupation of Judea and Samaria from Jordan. After the war, the command took part in the war of attrition in the Jordan Valley, during which it was often involved in the pursuit of terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan, and also led the Karama operation . Since the first intifada, the command focuses mainly on ongoing security in its sector, which includes security of the settlements and outposts within the command's areas, the security of traffic on the roads and dealing with terrorist attacks .

The commander of the Central Command serves, in addition to his military role, as sovereign in the territories of Judea and Samaria and holds almost absolute powers in the territory. Among other things, it determines the construction and demolition of buildings, and officially appoints the members of the General Assembly of Yosh (established by order of General in 1992 and canceled in 2019), the Second Authority for Television and Radio - Yosh (established by order of General in 2008), and the Council of Museums - Yosh (established by order of a general in 2012). These powers place him in constant tension with the settlers in Judea and Samaria and it was claimed that commanders in the IDF who are supposed to be appointed generals say "just not a central command.

The head of the Israeli Central Command essentially has sovereign authority in the West Bank. The West Bank was under the command of the Israel Defense Forces, meaning that Palestinians are subject to military law that gives the IDF authority. The Shin Bet has significant power. It can detain suspects for long periods without trial, access to a lawyer or evidence against them, and it can eavesdrop on phone calls, conduct covert surveillance, hack into databases and gather intelligence on any Arab living in the occupied territories with few restrictions. Palestinians are subject to military — not civilian — courts, which are far more punitive when it comes to terrorism charges and less transparent to outside scrutiny.

In a meeting in March 2024, in which Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, the head of Israel’s Central Command, which was responsible for the West Bank, gave a damning account of efforts by Bezalel Smotrich—the far-right leader and official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that oversees the West Bank—to undermine law enforcement in the occupied territories. Since Smotrich took office, Fuchs wrote, efforts to crack down on illegal settlement construction had dwindled “to the point where they have all but disappeared.” Moreover, Fuchs said, Smotrich and his allies were thwarting the very law enforcement measures that the government had promised Israeli courts would take.

Fuchs was definitely not the first Central Command general to draw fire from some of the residents in Judea and Samaria, but it seems that in his case things got out of control. Half a year after he took office, posters and billboards started to appear against Fox that marked him as the enemy of the settlement. The claim was that Fox prefers to focus on the fight against the hill boys instead of Palestinian terrorism, and that he takes a soft hand towards the Palestinian residents in the area, while making it difficult to establish new Jewish outposts. It was also claimed that Fox drags his feet in all that concerns the collection of weapons from Yosh cities, that he refuses to set up roadblocks to prevent shooting attacks on the highways, and that he neglects the safety of the Israelis.

By early 2011 the Israeli army’s engineering corps was making rapid progress in clearing mines in the Jordan Valley, while hundreds of minefields in the Golan Heights are being kept clear in case of a possible Syrian attack. According to a Haaretz report, the mines were planted 30-40 years ago, about 1.5 kilometers from the Jordan River. In the Golan Heights, hundreds of minefields still form part of the defense line in the event of war with Syria. The Israeli army has only removed anti-tank mines, which are relatively easy to remove, but more than 90 percent of the mines in the area are anti-personnel. Capt. Gidi explained that the Israeli army maintains very accurate maps and lists of the locations of the mines. He noted that there have been celebrations for the detonation of mines along the Jordanian border over the past five weeks. He said that before the engineering unit leaves each field, it makes sure that all the mines have been neutralized.

“But so far we have recorded mine sites 190 meters underground, but agricultural use of any land cannot be permitted until it is cleared,” he said. The IDF has not found an exact number of mines along the border, but informed sources in Central Command say that between 350,000 and 400,000 mines are buried along a 250-kilometer stretch. After the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, the mines were no longer needed and they became a serious obstacle to agriculture and tourism in the area. In 2004, the head of Central Command, Major General Yair Naveh, began removing the mines. In 2010, 7,000 mines were removed from the area, according to the head of the Engineering Division, Lt. Col. Shmuel Korki. The dangers of mines made headlines about a year ago after a 10-year-old boy lost his leg after stepping on an anti-personnel mine in the Golan Heights. Geddy says that despite the danger to civilians, the IDF intends to leave hundreds of mines behind. The Golan minefields are Israel's first line of defense against a potential Syrian incursion. Israel's Central Command believes all anti-tank mines can be removed within two years, but it was still searching for a safe way to remove the hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines in the area.

Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, which looked at more than 1,600 cases of settler violence in the West Bank between 2005 and 2023, found that only 3 percent resulted in a conviction. Ami Ayalon, the head of the Shin Bet from 1996 to 2000—who now speaks out because of his concern about Israel’s systemic failure to enforce the law—says that this unique lack of consequences reflects the indifference of the Israeli leadership going back years. “The cabinet, the prime minister, are sending a signal to the Shin Bet that if a Jew is killed, it’s terrible. If an Arab is killed, it’s not good, but it’s not the end of the world,” he says.

Many Israelis who moved to the West Bank did so for reasons other than ideology, and among the settlers, a large majority do not engage in violence or other illegal actions against Palestinians. Many within the Israeli government have campaigned for broader law enforcement in the territories, with some success. But they have also faced a harsh backlash, sometimes with serious personal consequences. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s efforts in the 1990s, in the wake of the first intifada, to make peace with Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, nurtured a new generation of Jewish terrorists and ultimately cost him his life.