The IDF, on Tuesday early afternoon, started a wide-ranging operation on Palestinian terror in Jenin, including reportedly tanks and air support.
Similar operations this year have sometimes lasted a week or more.
Prior to the IDF operation, the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces exited the area following a month-long operation of its own against local Palestinian terror groups.
Although the IDF generally told the Jerusalem Post that it gave the PA stronger than usual marks for going deep into even in the Jenin refugee camp and getting its hands dirtier than usual against local terror, it appears that the January 6 Palestinian terror attack near Kedumim convinced the defense establishment that the efforts were still insufficient.
That terror attack was carried out by Jenin Palestinian Islamic-Jihad linked terrorists.
PA terror crackdown
The unusual PA operation in Jenin – the PA security forces had not entered the Jenin refugee camp in years – came about and was provoked after those local terror groups carried out a series of attacks on PA security forces, one of their cars, and a PA security station.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the operation was also a broader show of force against Palestinian terror to deter Hamas and others from making trouble in the West Bank now that there is a ceasefire both with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
“This is another step toward achieving the goal we have set—strengthening security in Judea and Samaria,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the operation.
“We are systematically and resolutely acting against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its reach—in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Judea and Samaria,” he continued.
Following the operation, Hamas called for full “mobilization” in the West Bank on Tuesday.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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