Two senior Hamas terrorists involved in the Aug. 11 murder of an Israeli man in the Jordan Valley were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Saturday night in Jenin, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Ahmed Abu Ara from Aqabah and Rafet Dawasi from Silat al-Harithiya helped plan the shooting attack in which Yonatan Deutsch, 23, from the city of Beit She’an, was killed and another civilian was wounded.
בפעילות משותפת של צה"ל ושב"כ, כלי טיס תקף מהאוויר רכב בג׳נין שבחטיבת מנשה, בו חוסלו שני פעילי חמאס בכירים.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 17, 2024
המחבל אחמד אבו ערה מעקאבה, היה מעורב בפיגועים נוספים. כמו כן, שימש כגורם בכיר המעורב בייצור של מטענים למטרות טרור>> pic.twitter.com/hRRgVySQfr
The pair were identified as accomplices during an Israel Security Agency investigation of Yassin Ghanem, arrested by Israeli security forces in connection with the Aug. 11 attack.
Their vehicle was targeted in the airstrike in downtown Jenin, northern Samaria.
Two other people were killed in the strike, according to Palestinian sources.
Palestinian media report that a vehicle was targeted in an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin pic.twitter.com/oO2aHWGUqI
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 17, 2024
P.A. security forces who arrived at the scene to collect weapons from the vehicles were confronted by a crowd, with shots being fired, Ynet reported.
According to the IDF and ISA, Abu Ara was involved in other terrorist attacks and was a senior operative in the production of explosives. Dawasi was a senior Hamas operative in the Jenin area.
