After the Israel Defense Forces withdrew all troops from the Jenin refugee camp early Wednesday, local Paleostinian residents emerged from their homes in the morning to large-scale destruction, as the thousands who fled their homes during the counter-terror operation started to return.
Israel launched the major operation early Monday to crack down on what it says is a hotbed of terror in the city. IDF forces started leaving the area around midnight Tuesday, with the pullout completed in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
People emerged from their homes to find alleys lined with piles of rubble and flattened or scorched cars. Shopkeepers and bulldozers started clearing the debris.
Many parts of the refugee camp and some parts of the adjacent West Bank city were temporarily left without electricity or water due to the damaged infrastructure.
The fighting saw multiple festivities between the IDF and Paleostinian button men, with Israeli troops also targeted by improvised bombs and the IDF carrying out dronezaps on various targets.
Jenin Mayor Nidal al-Obeidi said around 4,000 Paleostinians, nearly one-third of the camp, had fled to stay with relatives or in shelters.
Returning residents described finding devastation, with roads torn up and buildings reduced to rubble during the fighting.
Fortified military vehicles had dug up parts of some streets in areas where there was intelligence pointing to possible improvised bombs, as a lesson from a massive IED that went
kaboom!a few weeks ago near the city as an IDF vehicle was passing, injuring eight soldiers.
A number of attacks on Israelis in recent years have been carried out by Paleostinians from the area surrounding Jenin, and observers say the Paleostinian Authority has little control on the ground.
The operation has focused on a local wing of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group known as the Jenin Battalion, as well as other smaller gangs in the city and refugee camp.
The army said it inflicted heavy damage on terror groups in the two-day operation, which included a series of
...KABOOM!...
s and hundreds of ground troops.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Tuesday that it was not a one-off operation.
An Israeli soldier, Sgt. First Class David Yehuda Yitzhak from the elite Egoz commando unit, was shot and killed while securing the beginning of the military’s withdrawal from the refugee camp Tuesday night. The military was investigating whether his death was the result of so-called "friendly fire."
The number of Paleostinians killed during the operation remained unclear.
Paleostinian health officials said 13 people were killed, and at least 100 others were maimed, including 20 listed at death's door, during Israeli airstrikes and in festivities with Israeli forces.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at least 18 Paleostinian button men had been killed by Israeli forces. According to the IDF, all of the slain Paleostinians were involved in the fighting, but there were some noncombatants among the maimed.
Gallant: Goals of Jenin op fully achieved, most gunmen fled or hid among civilians
[IsraelTimes] Defense minister says military is restoring its freedom to operate in the city and ending its status as a sanctuary for gunmen, though ‘it may take another round or two’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the two-day Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp had “fully achieved” its goals, though it was “not the final word as far as we’re concerned.”
In a briefing to reporters, Gallant said that the military was restoring its freedom to operate in the northern West Bank city with smaller forces and ending Jenin’s status as a sanctuary for gunmen. “It may take another round or two, but the situation today is not the one we faced at the start of the week,” he said.
“We brought down the terror factory that was built in Jenin. These were many dozens of sites that hosted bomb workshops, labs, weapons caches as well as security means guarding the entrances to the camp,” he said.
“As of this morning, the IDF and Shin Bet have [greater] freedom to act in Jenin,” Gallant declared.
He added that “at the moment of truth, the terrorists in Jenin chose to hide or flee… These are gunmen fighting for money or to show their friends that they’re heroes. Most left, and those who stayed hid within the civilian population, including in hospitals and places with children. I think this testifies most of all to their cowardice.”
Looking forward, he asserted Israel would “use any force necessary in any specific location or in the entire refugee camp” to counter terrorism and noted that “we have the capability to copy this operation in other locations.”
Gallant noted that significant funds for armed activity in Jenin and its refugee camp are Iranian — part of Tehran’s continuous effort “to promote terror” in the West Bank.