(January 26, 2023 / JNS) Nine Palestinians were killed during heavy clashes between gunmen and Israeli troops in Jenin on Thursday morning, according to Israeli media reports.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that troops were engaged while attempting to detain Palestinian Islamic Jihad members planning a major terrorist attack.
“During an attempt to arrest them, the wanted men opened fire and were killed in an exchange of fire,” said the IDF. “Three members of the PIJ cell were killed and a fourth was arrested. The wanted men, PIJ operatives, have been involved in recent extensive terror activity, are suspected of carrying out several shooting attacks against IDF forces, and planning other significant attacks,” the statement continued.
No Israeli forces were injured in the clashes, though video footage circulating online appears to show Palestinians downing an IDF drone.
P.A. president Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman accused Israel of “carrying out a massacre in Jenin amid international silence.”
Israeli forces remain engaged in a counter-terrorism offensive, primarily in Judea and Samaria, in response to a series of Palestinian attacks that killed 31 people in 2022.
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