An Apache attack helicopter and a fighter jet targeted a situation room on Friday night at a terrorist infrastructure in Jenin, killing Islam Ghumayseh, who, along with terrorist Ahmed Barakat, carried out the Hermesh attack last May, which resulted in the murder of Meir Tamari. This information was reported by IDF and the Shin Bet. Palestinians reported eight other people were injured in the attack and noted that Ghumayseh was one of the commanders in the Jenin Brigade of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The strike in Jenin
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
IDF and Shin Bet stated that the attack was conducted "under the intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet. Several key terrorists were hiding in the building, including those involved in shooting attacks in the Jenin area and planning to carry out additional attacks in the near future." Regarding the wanted man who was killed, they added: "Ghumayseh is a key wanted man in the Jenin camp responsible for a series of attacks in the area, including the shooting attack in Hermesh in which Meir Tamari was murdered, and another attack at the Ephes junction in June 2023 in which Israelis were injured."
"This is a dangerous terrorist infrastructure whose neutralization was intended to remove an immediate threat posed by the activists engaged in promoting attacks in the Jenin area and within Israel," said the joint statement from the IDF and Shin Bet. "We will continue to act to thwart any terrorist threat against Israeli citizens."
For many years, since the end Operation Defensive Shield, IDF refrained from airstrikes in the West Bank, but following the surge in terrorist attacks last year – even before the outbreak of the war – this policy changed, and airstrikes in the territories resumed. Barakat, the terrorist who carried out the Hermesh attack with Ghumayseh, was also killed in an airstrike in March, also in the Jenin area. The two had previously been photographed side by side with drawn weapons.
The attack last night is the third airstrike by a fighter jet in the West Bank since the beginning of the war. During this period, the IDF has conducted approximately 50 airstrikes, killing 215 terrorists.