At least nine Palestinian gunmen were killed in a series of drone strikes and clashes with the Israel Defense Forces in the northern West Bank early Wednesday, as the Israeli military announced it had launched a large-scale counterterrorism operation.
According to the Israeli army, the raid was mainly focused on the Tulkarem area, but troops were also carrying out activities in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
The operation, involving the Kfir brigade, the Duvdevan commando unit, combat engineers and border police, is expected to last at least several days, military sources said.
Two Palestinian gunmen were killed in clashes with border police officers in Jenin, and three others in a drone strike in a nearby village, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian health officials.
Four other Palestinian gunmen, who “endangered forces” carrying out a raid, were killed in a drone strike in Far’a, the army said.
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry also confirmed that four people were killed in Far’a, bringing the total death toll to nine.
כוחות צה”ל, שב”כ ומג”ב החלו הלילה במבצע לסיכול טרור בג׳נין ובטול-כרם.
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— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) August 28, 2024
Another drone strike in the Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem left two people injured, Palestinian media reported.
Statements from the armed wings of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin and Tulkarem said they were engaging in intense fighting with Israeli troops.
An Israeli military bulldozer drives on a road during a raid in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on August 28, 2024. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
By Wednesday morning, several wanted Palestinians had been arrested in the operation. The Israeli military said that many explosive devices planted under the roads had been neutralized and weapons had also been seized.
The troops participating 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 terrorist network that planned and directed the planned attack was based in the Tulkarem region.
The terrorist, identified by Hamas as Jaafar Mona, from Nablus in the West Bank, was killed when a bomb in his backpack exploded as he walked on a Tel Aviv sidewalk. A passerby was injured.
Israeli police at the scene of an explosion in Tel Aviv, August 18, 2024. Police later said it was an attempted suicide bombing in which the bomber blew himself up. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)
Terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the August 18 attack, but provided no evidence.
No injuries were reported among the soldiers during the operation on Wednesday morning.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement that an airstrike two days earlier targeted five terrorists in an “operations room” in Nur Shams.
According to the statement, the site was used to monitor “terrorist activities in the region and harm” Israeli forces.
The army confirmed Palestinian reports that among those killed was Jibril Jibril, a Hamas member released by Israel in a November deal with the terror group.
The military says the strike also killed bomb maker Adnan Jaber, as well as terrorists Mahand Qarawi and Mohammed Yousef.
The Israeli military released footage of the strike.
חמישה מחבלים שפעלו בחדר מבצעים במרחב נור א-שמס שבחטיבת מנשה. אמחבלים לניהול פעילות הטרור במרחב הפועלים בשטח>> pic.twitter.com/ae799t3a4S
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 28, 2024
Over the past ten months, the Israeli military has carried out more than 60 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters and fighter jets.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have escalated since October 7, when terrorists crossed the Gaza border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank were killed during that period. The Israeli military says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in gunfights, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists who carried out attacks.
During the same period, 27 people, including members of the Israeli security forces, were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Five other members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terrorists in the West Bank.
