Hundreds of IDF soldiers conduct largest W. Bank counterterror operation in several months

The IDF conducted the most extensive counterterror operation in the West Bank in several months with hundreds of troops participating and sustained and unusually broad air support, the military said Wednesday.

The Border Police, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and the IDF’s Duvdevan special forces and Kfir Brigade initiated the counterterrorism operation in Tulkarm, Jenin, and other areas in response to the attempted suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv on August 18 and a recent spike in Palestinian terror.

There are suspicions that the attempted suicide bombing was staged from the Tulkarm area.

Typically, raids in the West Bank involve dozens or fewer soldiers operating in any one village at a time.

The last time The Jerusalem Post was aware of a brigade-size operation in the West Bank was July 2023 when thousands of forces descended on Jenin to rout a growing insurrection in the area.

For months after that operation, Jenin was viewed as being more under control, with the Palestinian Authority security forces also returning to put down terror activity in a more effective way than they had done for some period of years.

But more recently, and despite the IDF having arrested nearly 5,000 Palestinian terror suspects and killed almost 600 terrorists since October 7, terror in Jenin has been heating up again.

Menashe Brigade in counterterrorism operation in the West Bank on August 28, 2024. (credit: IDF spokesperson unit)

A spokesman for the Red Crescent confirmed that 10 Palestinians had been killed during the operation, with 15 others wounded.

Drone strike killed five on Monday

More specifically, in the area of Jenin on Wednesday, the IAF eliminated in an aerial strike three armed terrorists who posed a threat to the security forces.

They eliminated two additional armed terrorists, detained wanted suspects, and confiscated military equipment, weapons, and ammunition.

No soldiers were wounded, the IDF reported.

Explosives that were planted beneath roads in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarm, intended to be detonated in attacks against the security forces, were exposed and dismantled by the IDF.

Meanwhile, the IAF conducted an additional operation in the area of al-Far’a, south of Jenin, striking four armed terrorists who had been involved in terror activities and had posed a threat to the security forces.

Additionally, Palestinian media reported IDF operations at Ibn Sina Hospital, including extensive questioning of some Palestinians there. Terror groups have used hospitals in the West Bank to try to hide from IDF forces.

Additionally, Duvdevan soldiers destroyed an apartment of a wanted individual while arresting another. The IDF also destroyed explosives planted along the side of the road.

During an IDF operation to uncover explosive devices buried under roads in Nur al-Shams, the military said it accidentally damaged a water pipe. There has been no directive for residents to evacuate and there are additional water sources available for the population in Nur al-Shams, said the IDF.

At the same time, the IDF said it has allowed residents who wish to distance themselves from the combat zones to leave the area safely through set humanitarian corridors.

The IDF was not following Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s recommendation to forcibly evacuate whole West Bank towns as it has done in Gaza when confronting Hamas.

On Monday, the IDF killed five terror suspects in a drone strike on a terror operations room in Tulkarm’s Nur al-Shams refugee camp.

The IDF confirmed that one of those killed was a terrorist released in the latest hostage deal with Hamas in November 2023.

Throughout a 14-hour operation in Tulkarm earlier in August, three terrorists were killed by the air force, and the IDF destroyed laboratories producing explosives.