IDF troops kill top Hamas terrorist in Jenin raid, as West Bank operation expands
Governor of terror hotbed reports ‘massive destruction’ in wake of IDF gunfight with terror commander Issar Saadi; soldiers shoot knife-wielding Palestinian near Homesh outpost
The head of a Hamas terror network in the West Bank city of Jenin was killed by undercover Border Police officers on Tuesday, authorities said.
The incident came as the Israel Defense Forces expanded its ongoing counterterrorism raid, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” in the northern West Bank to additional neighborhoods of Jenin.
In a first, troops were using “Eitan” armored personnel carriers in Jenin amid the operation, which are more heavy duty than the APCs normally deployed in the West Bank.
On Tuesday morning, as part of the expanded operation, Border Police officers along with IDF troops attempted to arrest the commander of Hamas’s terror network in Jenin, Issar Saadi, following information on his whereabouts provided by the Shin Bet.
Following an exchange of fire, Saadi and another gunman were killed, and three wanted Palestinians were detained, according to the IDF, police, and Shin Bet.
The troops found an assault rifle, handgun, and several other weapons during scans of the building where Saadi was holed up.
Another gunman was killed in a separate exchange of fire in the same area, the IDF added.
Also Tuesday, a Palestinian man who approached Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the West Bank settlement outpost of Homesh while brandishing a knife was shot dead by troops, according to a military source.
No soldiers were wounded in the incident.
Jenin governor reports ‘massive destruction’
Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub said that two Palestinians were killed, “and many young men were arrested,” while the Palestinian health ministry identified one of the dead as Issar Saadi, saying the 21-year-old’s body was taken away by troops after he was shot.
The head of the Jenin government hospital, Wisam Baker, told AFP that a man identified as Jihad Alawneh was declared dead on arrival at the facility early on Tuesday.
Baker said that Alawneh, 25, had bled out after being shot in the thigh.
Governor Abu al-Rub said the raid had caused “devastation and massive destruction” in Jenin’s eastern neighborhood, “which has not experienced an Israeli assault like this before.”
He said that the main electricity line was cut off, dozens of families were forced to leave, and army bulldozers had left behind a trail of damage.
On Tuesday afternoon, an AFP journalist said Israeli troops and armored personnel carriers were still in Jenin’s eastern neighborhood.
Firefighters worked to extinguish a fire in an apartment hit during the raid, its facade charred and some of its walls destroyed. Pools of blood had accumulated in several rooms of the apartment, the journalist said.
Abu al-Rub said that “more than 50 families were forced to flee and evacuate their homes because the Israelis took over their houses and buildings, turning them into military barracks.”
“All the streets in the eastern neighborhood were bulldozed,” said the governor, including areas that before Tuesday did not see army bulldozers ripping through roads in what the military says aims to clear explosives.
Bassem Hardan, a resident of the neighborhood, told AFP that after initially ignoring army calls for his family to leave, “they called our neighbors and told them to get out within two minutes before they demolish the building.”
More than 40,100 Palestinians have left their homes since the launch of Operation Iron Wall, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) figures from mid-February.
The IDF has said troops have killed more than 75 Palestinian terror operatives and detained some 450 amid the major ongoing counter-terrorism operation. The military has also acknowledged mistakenly killing several civilians during the operation, including a toddler and a pregnant woman. Troops have also seized nearly 200 weapons.
