Israeli forces kill commander of Islamic Jihad’s Jenin Battalion

Israeli security forces operating in the Samaria city of Jenin on Wednesday killed Mohammed Zubeidi, the commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Jenin Battalion, the IDF, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police said in a joint statement.

Zubeidi, a relative of notorious Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, was killed alongside another senior Palestinian terrorist in an exchange of fire, according to the security forces.

“Among other things, Zubeidi was involved in the shooting attack Hermesh Intersection in which the late Meir Tamari was killed, and in another shooting attack in the sector in which a civilian and four soldiers were injured,” the statement read, adding that Zubeidi sent the terrorists and supplied them with means of transport.

During the operation in Jenin’s refugee camp, IDF troops fired at the structure where Zubeidi had holed up. After entering the building, soldiers found the terrorists’ corpses and three M-16 assault rifles.

The security forces also arrested 17 wanted persons and seized weapons, explosives, ammunition and other military equipment.

The Jenin Battalion was founded in the aftermath of the 2021 war (“Operation Guardian of the Walls”) against Hamas. While the organization was initially set up as an Islamic Jihad branch in Jenin’s refugee camp, terrorists from other factions, including Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas, have since joined.

The Jenin Battalion reportedly receives millions of shekels in funding from terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

One year ago, the Jenin Battalion made headlines by kidnapping Tiran Fero, 17, a member of Israel’s Druze community who entered Jenin together with a friend to get his car repaired. According to Fero’s family, terrorists murdered him in a Jenin hospital by disconnecting life support equipment.

Jerusalem has also accused the Jenin Battalion of killing Sgt. Maj. Noam Raz, a veteran member of the Israel Police’s elite Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, during a raid on May 15, 2022.