Israeli forces entered Jenin in northern Samaria on Monday for the first time since the large-scale counter-terror operation in the P.A.-controlled city earlier this month.
“Two Hamas terror operatives were arrested during the early-morning raid,” said Hebrew media reports.
An exchange of gunfire took place during the operation, although Israeli forces did not enter the city’s refugee camp as they did during the major military operation.
No Israeli casualties were reported.
Twelve terrorists were killed in the IDF’s two-day “Operation Bayit Vagan” in early July, along with the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in Jenin.
Israeli security forces seized a large quantity of military equipment and weaponry in the Jenin camp and surrounding areas, including bombs, ammunition and guns.
More than 300 suspects were questioned, some 120 of whom were detained. Fourteen terror command posts were demolished, and six bomb-making facilities were dismantled, in which security forces found over 300 bombs, along with bomb-making chemicals and other weapons.
Six underground shafts and two weapon pits were also found, including in a mosque.
Since the conclusion of the operation, P.A. security forces have been operating in the city against terrorist elements, although they are not entering the refugee camp, which is a hotbed of terrorist activity.
P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas made a rare visit to Jenin a week after the conclusion of “Operation Bayit Vagan”—his first since 2012. The 87-year-old leader addressed crowds at the refugee camp, saying, “The heroic Jenin camp stood against the aggression, sacrificed its casualties and offered all it had for the sake of the homeland,” said Abbas.
“The IDF sent a brigade-sized force of its very best, soldiers from elite units like Maglan, Duvdevan, the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit, the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit and Egoz, the latter of which tragically saw one of its members, non-commissioned officer Chief Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23, killed in action,” said JNS.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager
