In Jenin, IDF kills 2 gunmen who shot 3 Israelis dead in terror attack this month
Hamas confirms Qutaiba al-Shalabi and Mohammed Nazal carried out attack; defense minister says Gaza lessons being applied in West Bank amid major Jenin operation
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Two Palestinian gunmen killed by troops near the West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday night were among the perpetrators of a deadly terror shooting attack in the village of al-Funduq earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service said Thursday morning.
Their elimination came amid an ongoing major counterterrorism raid in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Palestinian terror group Hamas took responsibility for the January 6 attack and also said that Qutaiba al-Shalabi and Mohammed Nazal, who were slain in the Wadi Burqin area, carried out the shooting that killed three Israelis.
The IDF said that troops of the Duvdevan commando unit, Shin Bet agents, and other soldiers surrounded a building in Wadi Burqin where the gunmen were holed up, and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out.
After an exchange of fire that lasted some four hours, two gunmen behind the al-Funduq shooting were killed. One IDF soldier was moderately hurt, the military said.
While Hamas claimed the two gunmen as its members, the IDF and Shin Bet said they were members of the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

The IDF added that several suspects who assisted in carrying out the deadly terror shooting were also detained amid an ongoing raid in the Jenin area.
At least three gunmen carried out the January shooting in al-Funduq, killing off-duty police officer Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein and civilians Rachel Cohen and Aliza Raiz.
The Shin Bet was investigating whether one of the suspects detained at the scene of the exchange of fire in Wadi Burqin was the third gunman in the al-Funduq shooting, or if the perpetrator was still at large.

Separately, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that forces were applying lessons learned in the war in Gaza as the operation continued in Jenin, which the military said was aimed at countering Iranian-backed terror groups in the volatile West Bank city.
A senior IDF officer in the West Bank division told reporters on Thursday that Operation Iron Wall was launched to neutralize the so-called Jenin Battalion, made up of operatives affiliated with terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Previous raids on Jenin in the past year did not specify such a goal, the officer said.
Operation Iron Wall is the third major IDF incursion in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime major stronghold of terror groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which said its forces were fighting Israeli troops.
Hundreds of troops, including several special forces units, Border Police officers and other IDF units, backed by drones and helicopters, have been operating in the Jenin camp since Tuesday morning. The officer said troops were scanning homes, capturing weapons, and eliminating terror operatives.
As the raid began, Palestinian Authority security forces pulled out of the Jenin refugee camp after having conducted a weeks-long operation to try to reassert control over the area from terror groups.
According to Palestinian media and Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, PA forces were still operating in and around the city of Jenin itself, and detaining terror operatives fleeing the army’s action.

Residents reported constant gunfire and explosions and Palestinian Authority health services reported at least 10 people killed on Tuesday. The senior IDF officer said Thursday that in all, 13 Palestinian gunmen had been killed in the raid so far.
Katz said the Jenin raid marked a shift in the military’s security plan in the West Bank and was “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza.”
“We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of settlers and establish a terrorist front east of the state of Israel,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza is a response to the October 7, 2023, invasion by thousands of terrorists led by Hamas that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza. The war has left much of the coastal enclave in ruins after 15 months of bombardment.
The Jenin operation began two days after the launch of a ceasefire deal in Gaza that will see some of the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza released after 15 months of captivity. Israel will also free nearly a thousand Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel, and its troops have pulled back from their positions in many areas of the enclave.
The military has said that terrorists’ increasing use of roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices was a particular focus of the Jenin operation, which included armored bulldozers tearing up roads in the refugee camp adjacent to the city.

The IDF said Wednesday it instructed Palestinians at a hospital in Jenin to remain inside the medical center for several hours as troops cleared suspected improvised explosive devices planted in the area by terror operatives.
“Following concerns of IEDs on roads near the Jenin hospital, security forces operated in the area overnight to neutralize the IEDs,” the military said in response to a query.
“As a result, those staying at the hospital were asked to remain inside it to maintain their safety. After the forces’ activity in the area, exit from the hospital was made possible through organized and safe routes,” the IDF said.
The IDF said troops did not enter the hospital and were not surrounding other medical centers in Jenin.
As the operation continued, some 2,000 Palestinians left their homes in the camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around Israel’s creation. “Thank God, we were at home, we went out and asked an ambulance to take us out,” said a woman who gave her name as Um Mohammad.
Checkpoint chokes
Before the raid, roadblocks and checkpoints had been thrown up across the West Bank.
The security cabinet ordered the IDF to establish dozens of additional checkpoints throughout the West Bank during the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire, which has led to mass traffic jams for Palestinians throughout the territory, the Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.
The move requires the army to stop and search every single Palestinian vehicle passing through the checkpoints and was directed due to fears of potential unrest, given the release of Palestinian security prisoners, including murderers, as part of the Gaza hostage deal. However, Haaretz reported, the checkpoints could themselves spark unrest in the territory, with Palestinians now often unable to enter and exit their villages.

One resident of the Ramallah area told Haaretz that she waited for three hours in traffic in order to get home and was unable to pick up her children from school.
“There was never a situation like this — not even at the beginning of the war,” she said.
Another resident of a village outside Ramallah claimed it now takes eight hours to return home from the city.
“What’s the reason for this? We don’t know. It’s a pressure cooker. It’s unbelievable. Going from Ramallah to the village is like going from one country to another,” he told Haaretz.
According to the Palestinian Authority, there are currently 900 checkpoints throughout the West Bank.
Reuters and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.