At least nine Palestinians were killed and several others injured during an Israel Defense Forces operation in Jenin in the West Bank. The operation was mounted to arrest wanted Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives who were allegedly preparing an imminent major terror attack in an Israeli city, the Israel Defense Forces said. Palestinian officials reportedly said that the death toll is expected to go higher. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement early on Thursday that it was operating in Jenin, it later provided more details about the operation, which it said was carried out following targeted intelligence information from the Shin Bet and included the YAMAM undercover unit and Border Police. “This squad could be defined as a ticking bomb and this whole operation was of tremendous importance,” a senior IDF official said. Israel’s security apparatus is preparing for an increase in violence coming from Gaza, the official also said.
The Kan public broadcaster reported that the operation began Thursday morning when undercover forces entered Jenin in a milk truck. Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired on the troops and detonated explosives, according to reports. The troops surrounded a building where the suspect and other wanted suspects were located. Two bombs later were discovered by IDF troops in the building and defused. During the altercation Palestinian fighters shot down an IDF drone, as seen in a video circulating on social media. The IDF reported that five wanted or armed men were killed by troops during the operation and noted that it is investigating reports of more Palestinian dead, and that no IDF troops were killed. The Palestinians report that one of the dead is a 60-year-old woman.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the operation in Jenin a “massacre carried out by the Israeli government, in the shadow of international silence.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they will hold an “emergency meeting” in Gaza. Israeli officials say there is a possibility that rockets will be fired from Gaza on Israel.