IDF chief: Troops who killed Palestinian gunmen in West Bank prevented a more severe attack
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the soldiers who killed the two Palestinian gunmen in the southern West Bank this morning prevented a more severe attack.
“This was a serious attack. The troops’ swift action prevented an even more serious attack and further harm to civilians and security forces,” he says during an assessment with officers on the shooting.
Zamir says that “a large quantity of ammunition was found in the vehicle in which the terrorists arrived at the scene of the attack, which was intended to be used to carry out a larger-scale attack.”
According to the IDF, the gunmen were armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol, and they were shot dead by the deputy commander of the Home Front Command’s Ari Battalion and a company commander who rushed to the scene.
Zamir also ordered that preparations be made for additional forces to be deployed to the Central Command if required.
The Times of Israel reports the army chief's account of a shooting near Hebron in which troops killed two Palestinians, and it attributes his claims and the army's details to them. Every voice in the piece is an army one, and no Palestinian or independent source appears. This gap does not change what a reader understands about the shooting itself.
One side gets the space
Minor
“The troops’ swift action prevented an even more serious attack and further harm to civilians and security forces,”
Why this matters
The outlet builds the whole piece from the army chief's words and the army's own account. No other source, Palestinian or independent, appears.
The impression it gives
A reader gets the event only as the army describes it: a thwarted larger attack, stopped by swift troops.
The context
Other reports of the same day carry the wider picture. Netanyahu ordered Hebron cordoned off and the West Bank prepared for lockdown, and Hebron's mayor said every way in and out of the city was closed. None of this appears here.
“According to the IDF, the gunmen were armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol”
The outlet attributes the weapons and the account of the killing to the army rather than stating them in its own voice.
“Zamir says that “a large quantity of ammunition was found in the vehicle”
The claim that a larger attack was planned, and the word terrorists, stay inside the army chief's attributed quotation rather than in the outlet's voice.