Restrictions on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ability to open fire against terrorists in the West Bank are necessary to prevent an escalation in West Bank violence, Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, said Tuesday, according to Israeli media network Arutz Sheva.
 

In testimony before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Gantz defended the limits, which bar troops from firing unless they believe their lives are in danger.

Gantz’s remarks followed complaints from settlers and combat soldiers that restrictions on soldiers’ ability to open fire on and pursue fleeing terrorists are connected to recent increases in anti-Israeli violence, Arutz Sheva reported.
 

The Knesset was recently told that rock-throwing attacks in the West Bank are up threefold since 2011 and firebomb attacks have increased fourfold.

Writing recently in the Hebrew-language web magazine Mida, IDF reservist Erez Tadmor noted that “Palestinian marauders enjoy near-complete immunity,” with Israeli soldiers barred from exiting their rock-proof vehicles “for fear that they will have to open fire and will face the very real threat: the possibility of being put on trial.”

But in his Knesset testimony, Gantz cautioned against loosening restrictions on when Israeli forces can open fire. He said that “if we let go of the reins, there will be escalation and we will lose control,” Arutz Sheva reported.

Gantz said that briefings given to Israeli forces prior to security missions needed improvement, but added that in the end soldiers would continue to operate “in accordance with the present orders, without changing them.”