The IDF eliminated three terrorists in an airstrike near Jenin on Friday, including a Hamas terrorist accused of planning attacks and helping rebuild the group’s local network, Israeli security agencies said.
The main target was Qais Bitawi, whom the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit described as a senior terrorist in the Jenin network. Two accomplices were killed alongside him.
Footage: Drone strike in Jenin, one missile fired
(Video: IDF)
According to the military, a single missile was fired from a drone at the three men as they stood outside a vehicle near a building under construction.
In a joint statement, the IDF, Shin Bet and Yamam said Bitawi had been responsible for local Hamas terrorist activity in the Jenin refugee camp and maintained contacts with Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip and abroad.
Israeli security forces said the Jenin network with which he was associated had previously been dismantled during Operation Iron Wall, the large-scale military campaign launched in the northern West Bank. A firearm was found inside the vehicle used by the three terrorists, according to the IDF.
Palestinian reports said Israeli forces delayed Palestinian Red Crescent crews attempting to reach the scene and evacuate casualties. Later, Palestinian media reported that Israeli troops entered Jenin and surrounded several homes in the center of the city.
The strike was unusual. Israel had not carried out an airstrike in the West Bank for about 10 months, despite maintaining extensive operational control in parts of the territory.
Rifle found in the terrorists’ vehicle
(Photo: IDF)
Footage from the scene of the strike
Israeli forces have killed several leaders of terrorist networks in Jenin in recent years. Friday’s strike against another senior terrorist indicated continuing attempts by armed groups to rebuild their infrastructure in the area.
The previous Israeli airstrike in the West Bank took place on Oct. 28 last year. In that incident, Yamam officers identified terrorists emerging from a cave and shot two of them dead before a third was killed in an airstrike.
The IDF has maintained a presence in the Jenin refugee camp for more than a year after taking control of the area and evacuating its residents, citing its use as a base for terrorist attacks. Israeli forces have widened roads through the camp, demolished infrastructure used by terrorists and carried out arrests.
Friday’s strike came amid heightened Israeli military preparations in the West Bank. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Thursday that, “in light of the tensions in Judea and Samaria and the approaching holiday period,” he had ordered another regular division headquarters placed on heightened readiness to reinforce forces in the area. He also instructed the military to prepare units and battalions for immediate deployment if needed.
Deploying an additional division headquarters would be an unusual step and could divide operational responsibility in the West Bank between two divisional commands, allowing tighter command and control.
Under one possibility being examined, the southern regional brigades responsible for the Judea and Etzion areas would fall under the additional division, while the Binyamin, Samaria, Ephraim and Menashe sectors would remain under the IDF’s existing West Bank division.
The move may also be intended to signal Israeli concern over deteriorating security conditions at a time when Washington has voiced unease over recent incidents of nationalist violence by Israeli extremists in the West Bank.