Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Director Ronen Bar visited the Palestinian city of Jenin in northern Samaria alongside Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Thursday, the third day of the “Iron Wall” counter-terrorism operation in the area.
“It is impossible to be victorious over terrorism through defense,” Bar declared in remarks published by the IDF. Noting that Israel has been dragged into a multi-front war, he stated, “Now it’s time for Samaria.”
“First of all, well done on the operation—a great intelligence operation, as well as in the field,” Bar said after a situational assessment. “I am very happy with what I’m hearing—intelligence, Shin Bet, Border Police and IDF are operating well in the field, saving lives and achieving objectives.”
Commenting on Thursday’s elimination near Jenin of two terrorists who were involved in a Jan. 6 shooting attack that left three Israelis dead in al-Funduq, the Shin Bet director promised to “also get to the third.”
“I think there is significant value in closing the circle,” said Bar. “First, a terrorist who carried out an attack wants to carry out another attack, so this neutralizes a threat. Second, it sends a message that no one walks away from terror alive. And third, it is also a message to the families [of the terrorists].”
Halevi noted that the IDF has been monitoring and operating against the “concentration of terrorism in northern Samaria for a long time.”
Jenin has become a haven for “those who want to organize an attack and those who carried out an attack and are looking for a safe place,” he explained, saying it is “very appropriate to go hard on the Jenin camp.”
“We need to be prepared for continuous operations in the Jenin refugee camp, to handle pressure and, at the same time, know how to do other things as well,” the IDF chief of staff said. “Few casualties on our side, many casualties for the enemy, destruction of infrastructure. I think such a continuous effort will bring the Jenin refugee camp to a different place.”
“Operation Iron Wall” includes the IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police officers, the military said in a statement on Tuesday.
Four IDF battalions were participating in the operation, amounting to at least several hundred ground troops.
Israeli forces entered Jenin immediately after Palestinian Authority police left, according to Arab reports. Earlier this week, it was reported that the P.A. struck a deal with the Iran-backed Jenin Battalion terrorist coalition, ending a rare month-long P.A. operation in the city.
Israeli ground forces entered the city with the stated goal of preserving Jerusalem’s ability to swiftly act against terrorist groups in Jenin, known among Palestinians as the “Martyrs’ Capital” due to the significant number of suicide bombers who have emerged from the area.
The counter-terror raid was initially planned for December, but it was postponed at the request of the political echelon in Jerusalem after the P.A. launched its Jenin operation, the Israel Hayom daily reported.
On Tuesday night, an unnamed senior security force told the Channel 14 News broadcaster that the large-scale campaign against Iranian-backed terrorist groups in northern Samaria could take months.
“When it ends, the terror camps will cease to exist. What we did in Gaza, we will do to them as well; we will leave them in ruins,” the source said.
During a visit to the Jenin area on Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz described the ongoing operation in the city as “a shift in the IDF’s security doctrine in Judea and Samaria.
“We will not allow the arms of the Iranian octopus and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of the [Israeli] citizens and establish an eastern terrorist front against the State of Israel,” Katz said. “We will strike hard at the arms of the octopus until they are severed.”
