IDF thwarts planned Hamas & PIJ terror attack with rare airstrike near Jenin

Israeli security forces foiled a planned terror attack by conducting a rare drone airstrike in northern Samaria, eliminating a terror cell hiding near the city of Jenin.

The attack was carried out on a cave near the village of Qud, some 5km west of Jenin. According to Al-Ghad TV, two of the killed terrorists belonged to Hamas and the third to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The strike was part of a larger counterterror operation, including forces of the IDF, the Border Police’s Yamam commando unit, and the Shin Bet.

They targeted the terror cell after receiving intelligence that it had planned an attack on an Israeli target.

According to a police statement, Yamam snipers spotted two terrorists emerging from the cave, and they shot and killed them shortly before the airstrike hit the target.

The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that Israeli aircraft, acting on real-time intelligence, had carried out additional strikes in the area targeting other terrorists.

Defense Minister Israel Katz praised the security forces for foiling “a serious terrorist attack threat.”

“Every attempt by terrorist organizations to rebuild the terror infrastructures in Judea and Samaria that we thwarted and destroyed in the terror camps in northern Samaria will be met with an iron fist. The aerial strike was intended to thwart [destroy] a cave that was exposed as a complement to the ground operation,” he said.

“I have instructed the IDF to take all necessary measures, from the ground and also from the air, in order to eliminate the terror threats in Judea and Samaria and the terrorists. IDF forces, led by Central Command, will continue to remain in the terror camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams in order to prevent terror and attacks. Anyone who assists terror and provides it with shelter and support will be dealt with according to the Jenin terror camp model.”

The operation was part of the larger Israeli effort to combat terror in the northern Samaria region, long a hotbed for Islamist terror groups. Before the current war, airstrikes in Judea and Samaria had become increasingly rare.

However, since then, the Israeli Air Force conducted several such strikes to assist the intense counterterror operations in the region.

The cell eliminated today was reportedly linked to the terror network formerly based in the Jenin refugee camp.

However, intense Israeli operations there deprived the terrorists of their home base, and the continued Israeli presence in the camp forced them to disperse to villages in the area, where they continue to be hunted by Israeli forces.

In another overnight raid, police and IDF troops located two illegal weapons manufacturing workshops and arrested several suspects in Hebron and the nearby town of Dura.