Ahead of Yom Kippur, IDF bolsters forces on all fronts; Gaza crossing to close Sun-Mon

The Israeli military said on Friday that it was ramping up its forces on all fronts ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, which starts on Sunday evening and ends on Monday night.

Additional companies of troops will be deployed in the Northern, Southern, and Central commands, and a senior officer will be on duty in each sector during the holiday, the army said, adding that it was following a directive from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

At the Home Front Command, a major general will be on duty at the command’s headquarters, and a district commander, normally a colonel, will be on duty in each district.

The Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip will be closed on Sunday and Monday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said in a statement on Friday.

“Beyond these two days, crossings continue to operate at a stable volume to meet the needs identified by the international community, with hundreds of aid trucks entering Gaza daily,” COGAT said.

Furthermore, the Air Force will be operating at a heightened level of readiness during Yom Kippur, including an increased number of armed aircraft. The Navy, similarly, will increase the number of missile boats at sea and is bolstering border patrol vessels.

Additional standby companies of troops are also being assigned to the various commands and branches of the military, to be deployed if necessary.

Zamir had already ordered a bolstering of troops across all fronts last month for the Jewish holiday season, saying that the entire IDF, “across all its branches, will remain on full, multi-front readiness during the holiday period” and that there will be no reduction in forces.

The High Holidays have been considered a time of heightened tensions in the West Bank even before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel that started the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The same period in previous years often saw closures of border crossings.

The Rosh Hashanah holiday at the beginning of this week also saw a string of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians throughout the West Bank.

Such attacks have been taking place on a near-daily basis, and have gone largely unchecked, leading to accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is ignoring the phenomenon, if not tacitly backing it.