Border Police officer killed amid intense clashes in Jenin

One Border Police officer was killed and several were wounded after an explosive device targeted their vehicle amid clashes in the West Bank city of Jenin early Sunday morning, according to a joint statement by the IDF and Border Police. The wounded officers were transferred to Rambam Medical Center for medical treatment.

Sgt. Shai Garmai, 19, from Carmiel, was pronounced dead on Sunday morning, hours after the clashes. She is survived by her parents and three brothers.

Additionally, during the clashes, an Israeli airstrike targeted a terrorist cell, which was endangering Israeli forces, with Palestinian media reporting six Palestinians were killed in the strike. Israeli military helicopters fired at terrorists on the ground and the Border Police officers wounded in the clashes were evacuated.

فيديو| تغطية صحفية: لحظة تـفـجـيـر عـبـوة ثانية بالتزامن مع إطـلاق نـار كثيف تجاه قـوات الاحـتـلال في جنين. pic.twitter.com/kZ168uQQz2

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 6, 2024

Clashes erupted as Israeli forces entered the city on Saturday night, with Palestinian terrorists setting off explosives and firing heavily at the Israeli forces.

Helicopters and drones were spotted over the city during the clashes, according to Palestinian reports.

Raids reported throughout West Bank

Raids by Israeli forces were also reported in Nablus and Kalkilya overnight, according to Palestinian media. Armed clashes erupted in Nablus amid the raid in the city.

Israeli forces have conducted repeated operations in Jenin since a wave of terror started in the West Bank in Spring 2022, but with a major operation on July 3-4 and with a significant escalation since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on October 7, conducting several airstrikes targeting terrorists in the city in some of the raids.

Meanwhile, an east Jerusalem Arab was killed in what was being dubbed a terror shooting attack on Route 465 near the British Police Junction at Wadi al-Haramiya in Binyamin on Sunday morning.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics arrived on the scene and pronounced the death of Amar Mansour in his 30s from gunshot wounds. The east Jerusalem victim was a resident of Beit Hanina.

A female in her 40s, who works full-time at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, who was driving with Mansour, was also badly wounded and was receiving extensive medical attention throughout the day on Sunday.

IDF soldiers and security forces are still pursuing the terrorists after their car was discovered a few kilometers from the attack site.

Head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Gantz, visited the scene shortly after the attack.

"We quickly arrived at the scene and saw a 30-year-old man sitting in a car, unconscious without a pulse and suffering from gunshot wounds to his body," MDA paramedic Benjamin Rosenbaum said. "We performed medical aid, but his injury was critical, and we had to pronounce him dead."

At press time, neither the IDF nor the Shin bet had clarified why they were categorizing the attack as a terror attack, as opposed to a criminal dispute, being that the killers and the victims were both Arabs.

In the past, Palestinians have killed east Jerusalem residents or Israeli-Arabs by accident, thinking they were Jews, or when they viewed someone as a “traitor” who was helping spy or with some other efforts for Israel against Palestinians.