Israel’s DM Gallant says Jenin op exposed ‘cowardice’ of terrorists

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday summarized his military’s two-day counterterrorism operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, hours after Israeli troops withdrew from the hotbed of violence and terror.

“In the last 48 hours, we have significantly damaged the terrorist production infrastructure, and we have destroyed the terrorist production factory that was established in Jenin,” Gallant said at a briefing for military reporters.

“The objectives of the operation have been fully achieved,” he said, pointing to the destruction of “workshops” for the production of explosives, labs, storage sites, and tunnels.

The Israel Defense Forces launched a massive operation with the Shin Ben security agency, one of the biggest in 20 years, which saw at least 12 Palestinians killed, 150 suspected terrorists arrested, and one Israeli soldier killed. Israeli forces said it also seized caches of guns and roadside mines, and that all the Palestinians killed were armed terrorists.

"The fighters acted courageously in a professional manner, fulfilled their tasks in an admirable manner - kudos to the IDF," Gallant said.

The operation “proves that this is not about some kind of army or militia, it’s about the terrorists who fight for money or to show their friends that they are heroes,” the minister continued.

“Most of them left their place of residence, and those who remained hid in places where they were protected by the civilian population, such as hospitals. This is something that indicates more than anything the cowardice and lack of courage that they tried to demonstrate on the outside.”

“The hands are Palestinian hands, mainly of the Islamic Jihad, which is the more dominant factor in the Jenin refugee camp,” he noted, referring to the Gaza-based terror movement. 

“But there are others as well. The funding is Iranian funding. In general, we recognize a long period of Iranian attempts to promote terrorism from the West Bank."

At the tail end of the IDF’s operation, rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning, all of which were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. In response, Israel launched an airstrike in Gaza against Hamas targets.

"We are in the main vector towards the deployment against Iran, and that is why we operated in Gaza two months ago, in a five-day operation or in a two-day operation against Jenin now, in the military definition this is 'flank security'."

"Any terrorist who returns to the refugee camp in Jenin will not recognize him, for him it is no longer a protected place, and the feeling of persecution will accompany them. As far as we are concerned, this is not the end of the verse, where we acted with strength, we will act after that with whatever strength is required in a specific place or on the entire refugee camp.”