IDF carries out 3 drone strikes in Jenin area; Palestinians say 4 dead, including teen

Military says strikes targeted armed terror operatives, including cell en route to carry out attack, amid ongoing offensive in northern West Bank

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

FILE: A Palestinian paramedic opens the back of an ambulance, as ordered by Israeli troops at a roadblock, during a military raid in Jenin, West Bank, on January 29, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
FILE: A Palestinian paramedic opens the back of an ambulance, as ordered by Israeli troops at a roadblock, during a military raid in Jenin, West Bank, on January 29, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

The Israeli military on Saturday carried out three drone strikes on terror operatives in the northern West Bank, with Palestinians reporting four people killed and several others wounded.

The strikes came as the Israel Defense Forces expanded an ongoing counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank, now in its 12th day.

One of the strikes, in the city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, targeted a car with two gunmen in it who were en route to carrying out an “imminent” attack, the Israel Defense Forces said.

According to the IDF, secondary explosions were seen following the strike, indicating the presence of bombs in the vehicle.

The strike killed terror operatives Salah Zakarneh and Abd al-Hadi Kamil (also identified as Abd Issam Alawneh), the IDF said, the latter of whom was previously detained by Israel and released in the November 2023 hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

He was the fourth Palestinian released during that weeklong truce to have since been killed by Israel.

Two additional drone strikes targeted groups of armed Palestinian terror operatives in Jenin on Saturday night, the army said.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported two dead in one of the drone strikes in Jenin, including a 14-year-old boy.

Two other people were also taken to a hospital after being wounded in the Jenin attack, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The strikes came amid a major counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank.

The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but also expanded to Tulkarem last week and to the town of Tamun late Saturday.

Troops of the Bislamach Brigade — the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders in peacetime — entered the town overnight, and located several weapons, the military said Sunday.

Last week, a drone strike in Tamun killed 10 Palestinian terror operatives.

Visiting Jenin Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed the IDF would remain in the camp even after the military operation there, “to ensure terror does not return.”

An IDF soldier gestures during a raid in Jenin in the West Bank on January 27, 2025. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there.

Since then troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 858 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

There has also been a significant uptick in settler violence against Palestinians since the start of the war.

During the same period, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

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