Tel Aviv, January 27: Israeli security forces eliminated 15 Palestinian terrorists and arrested 40 wanted suspects in the Jenin refugee camp, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said on Monday as an ongoing counterterror operation neared the end of its first week.
Key Points
1.
Israeli forces eliminate 15 terrorists in strategic Jenin operation
2.
Extensive weapons and bomb-making facilities discovered
3.
Operation targets Iranian-influenced militant networks
4.
Demonstrates Israel's ongoing counterterrorism efforts
The IDF and Shin Bet said forces also confiscated numerous weapons.
"As part of the operation, commando fighters located a bomb inside a washing machine in one of the buildings in Jenin and destroyed dozens of bombs that had been planted on roads in order to harm our forces," the IDF said. "In another operation, an observation post was located containing gas cylinders intended for preparing bombs."
Separately, Hamas confirmed on Monday that two of its people were killed in an Israeli drone strike near the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, identifying them as its Tulkarem commander Ihab Abu Atiwi and Ramez Damiri. The IDF said Atiwi was involved in numerous shooting attacks, including one that injured three Israeli civilians in a vehicle near Tulkarem in July.
The army's Jenin raid, dubbed "Operation Iron Wall," launched on Tuesday, comes on the heels of the Palestinian Authority's failed crackdown in the Jenin refugee camp.
"We are operating in a systematic and decisive way against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its arms, in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria," a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said at the beginning of the operation.
Publicly, the Palestinian Authority had explained its Jenin crackdown as a fight against "lawbreakers" and against Iranian and Islamic State influence.
But a senior PA official explained to TPS-IL during the initial raids that its raid was part of a broader strategy to demonstrate PA authority's ability to maintain governance as Ramallah eyes eventually administering the Gaza Strip.
One senior Fatah official described the crackdown to TPS-IL in December as a "do-or-die campaign" for Abbas, who is determined to dismantle what he calls "resistance nests" in the refugee camp.
Previous Israeli counterterror operations in 2023 and 2024 in the Jenin camp uncovered a tunnel shaft, a rocket launcher, large amounts of weapons and bomb-making laboratories. As of 2023, just over 24,000 registered refugees were living in the camp that Palestinians have dubbed "The Martyr's Capital."
An Arab diplomat later told TPS-IL that the PA's raids were insufficient and that Arab leaders are urging US President-elect Donald Trump to replace Abbas. (ANI/TPS)
