Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian militants in the West Bank. The authorities said they were on the verge of carrying out an attack. An assault rifle was found in her car.
According to their own statements, Israeli soldiers prevented an attack. They opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle near the West Bank city of Jenin, killing the three occupants, the Israeli army broadcaster reported. According to the military, the men were on their way to carry out an assassination attempt.
It was a militant group that had been involved in previous actions against Israeli forces and supported terrorists in the Gaza Strip, police said. An M-16 assault rifle was found in the vehicle. A spokesman for the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip threatened that the deaths would not go unpunished.
Large-scale army operation in Jenin
Jenin is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians. About a month ago there had been a large-scale operation by the Israeli army there. It was the heaviest fighting in the city for more than two decades. According to the at least ten Palestinians were killed and around 100 injured. According to Israel, the operation was directed against militant Palestinian groups who used the refugee camp in Jenin as a retreat and prepared attacks from there.
Since the beginning of the year, several attacks have been carried out, particularly in Israel’s coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv. Only on Saturday did a Palestinian from Jenin shoot dead a security guard there. Loudspeakers in mosques in Jenin announced that the perpetrator was a member of the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad.
Settlers shot at youths
According to the terrorist organization Hamas on Saturday, the attacker’s “heroic act” was a reaction to the killing of two young men in the West Bank on Friday. An 18-year-old man was killed in a raid by the Israeli army in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, according to the Ministry of Health.
Israeli settlers also shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian near Ramallah. Two suspects were arrested, according to police. The extreme right-wing Israeli police minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, justified their actions as self-defense. According to media reports, one of the suspects was a member of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Jehudit party and a former spokesman for a party MP.
Secret service warning
According to the news website ynet, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, urgently warned the right-wing conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Jewish terror against the Palestinians. This represents a strategic danger and in turn fuels Palestinian terror, said the head of the intelligence service. The security situation in Israel and the West Bank has long been tense.