5 Palestinian gunmen, including top commander, killed by IDF at West Bank mosque
Islamic Jihad chief in Tulkarem area among dead; another operative detained; two soldiers hurt; Palestinian death toll since start of operation rises to 17
Palestinians stand outside a damaged mosque following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Faraa, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen overnight who were hiding in a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, including a local terror leader, the Israel Defense Forces, police and Shin Bet security agency said on Thursday morning.
The IDF launched a large-scale operation in Tulkarem early Wednesday. Troops were also operating in the city of Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas as part of the operation.
According to Palestinian media, the death toll since the start of the operation had risen to 17 as of Thursday morning. The IDF said that it had killed at least 12 gunmen in the first 24 hours of the operation.
In Tulkarem, troops of Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit were dispatched to a mosque in the city following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet of a group of gunmen holed up there.
The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.
The Israeli forces had fired shoulder-launched missiles at the mosque as part of the tactic, and two gunmen were killed.
In an adjacent building, another four gunmen were identified, and three of them were killed in an exchange of fire with the Yamam officers, while the fourth surrendered.
In all, five Palestinian gunmen were killed and one Israeli Yamam officer was lightly hurt in the exchange, according to the military.
Among the dead in the mosque was Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, who Palestinian media had previously reported to be the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.
Jaber had survived several previous attempts by Israel to kill him, according to Palestinian media.
The Shin Bet said Jaber was involved in planning and directing many terror attacks, including the killing of Amnon Muchtar in a terror attack in Qalqilya in June.
The detained terror operative in the building adjacent to the mosque was identified by Palestinian media as Mohammed Qassas, a founding member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem.
The large operation, involving the Kfir Brigade, the Duvdevan Commando Unit, combat engineers, and Border Police, was expected to last at least several days, military sources said Wednesday.
The ongoing operation was focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
While the army has said it has seen a relative decline in terror coming from the northern West Bank in recent months, it has also seen continued attempts by terror operatives to launch attacks.
After a series of smaller operations in the northern West Bank, the IDF decided to launch a more extensive operation, targeting three areas at once — Jenin, Tulkarem and Far’a — where terror operatives were seen as operating together, military sources said.
The large-scale operation was also launched in part following an intended suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month.
Dozens of explosive devices were neutralized and weapons were also seized, the army says, attaching footage showing soldiers shooting at bombs planted along roads in the West Bank.
The IDF has also been ripping up roads in the West Bank where it said it had intelligence of explosive devices that were planted there. So far, dozens of bombs hidden underneath roads have been neutralized, the military says.
The IDF has carried out several drone strikes amid the operation. In the past 10 months, the IDF has carried out more than 60 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.
One IDF soldier was also moderately wounded amid the operations, the military added.
Troops taking part in the raid were operating in an area from which an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was launched last week, IDF sources said.
The military believed that a terror network that planned and directed the intended attack was based in the Tulkarem area.
The bomber was named by Hamas as Jaafar Mona, from the West Bank city of Nablus. He was killed when a bomb in his backpack exploded prematurely as he walked down a Tel Aviv sidewalk. One passerby was injured.
The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups claimed responsibility for the attack on August 18.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have soared since October 7, when terrorists burst through the Gaza border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 650 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 27 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
1 comment:
Shorter trip to paradise for them.
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