Israel boosts border communities with over 200 armored vehicles

The Israeli Defense Ministry has decided to boost border community security by investing almost $30 million, 150 million shekels, to purchase more than 200 armored vehicles.

The vehicles are reportedly earmarked for vulnerable communities close to the Lebanon and Gaza borders, as well as communities in Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank.

The IDF's Ground Forces Col. Yaniv Walfer, head of protection told the Jerusalem Post that “purchasing armored vehicles for local security groups constitutes a significant component in strengthening security for villages on the frontlines.”

Israeli security officials have assessed, with hindsight, that such vehicles could have assisted local security units in reducing the sheer scale of the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel by Hamas terrorists and their allies. More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were massacred due to the unprecedented number of Palestinian terrorists who breached the border in a well-coordinated attack.

Four months in and as the small Jewish nation begins to process what happened, officials believe that these armored vehicles could have saved many lives on the single most lethal day in modern Jewish history, since the Holocaust.

Israeli officials are still concerned about a potential attempt by the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group, Hezbollah, to invade northern Israeli communities. In addition, smaller Hamas terror cells could still attempt to infiltrate Israeli communities adjacent to the Gaza border or in the West Bank.

The Jerusalem Post also reported that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) has pledged to contribute more than around $2 million, (7.5 million shekels) toward the purchase of nine armored vehicles to be distributed to vulnerable Gaza border communities.

IFCJ President Yael Eckstein stressed that her organization had been focused on Israel’s security, even prior to the brutal Oct. 7 attack.

“Well before the onset of this terrible war, we had been working to address the security needs of Israel’s communities and it is, therefore, a source of pride and comfort to see how that investment helped save countless lives on that fateful October day,” Eckstein stated.

“With that knowledge and experience, we see it as our responsibility, opportunity and privilege to further expand our support in ways that we know will now help on the northern border. While we pray for safer and better days very soon, the IFCJ is actively assisting in all ways possible in defending our country and supporting the diverse needs of our people during these deeply challenging times.”

Senior Israeli security officials reportedly dismissed warnings, by way of intelligence signposts, that Hamas was preparing a large-scale attack on Israel. However, the Oct. 7 massacres have forced the Israeli security to re-evaluate their entire policy towards Iranian terror proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and others.