A screenshot from Dubai-based Al-Hadath news network broadcasting live the arrival of President Abbas to Jenin after 11 years, in a sign that IDF operation in the city that dismantled a key terror command center in the West Bank, helped revive the fortunes of Western-backed Palestinian Authority (Source: Al-Hadath news coverage)
- Just look at this amazing screenshot above. That’s an Arab TV station broadcasting live President Abbas’s arrival in Jenon after 11 years. President Mahmoud Abbas – and others in this region – might condemn Israel’s Jenin raid two weeks ago. But it is this impressive IDF and Shin Bet raid that helped Abbas’s Palestinian Authority restore control over Jenin after nearly 11 years. Just
- We devote this edition to an IDF raid that appears to have done a lot of good and proven many critics wrong
- Israel turned the tables on Jenin militants
- A weak Palestinian Authority triumphantly returns to Jenin thanks to Israeli raid
- A swift operation: the IDF disappointed critics who hoped for a quagmire
- IDF action emboldens Palestinian Authority to challenge support for Palestinian terror groups in Arab media
- Child soldiers: A BBC anchor’s mischaracterization serves to spotlight how Palestinian militant groups endanger lives of Palestinian teenagers
- Help more people understand what happened. Share this edition of Watchpost with people looking for answers on what Israel and the Palestinians have achieved from targeting the Jenin terror hotbed
Israel’s Action Against Jenin Terrorists Helped Palestinian Authority President Return To The City After 11 Years
Israel’s two-day-long raid into Jenin last week has stopped the West Bank from becoming another Gaza.
The return of Palestinian Authority’s control over Jenin, and the fugitive Palestinian militants that Palestinian security forces are now able to capture, is all thanks to the swift, calculated raid that Israel Defense Force (IDF) mounted in the first week of July 2023. It worked.
The IDF Jenin raid emboldened Muslim-American Anila Ali to challenge fellow Muslim-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib about the silence on Palestinian terrorist groups.
The target was a terror command center in the city of Jenin that threatened the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike.
This Palestinian terror command center – run by the Jenin Brigade – used schools, mosques, and hundreds of Palestinian families nearby as human shields to hide deadly weapons.
(Source: IDF press release)
The initial achievements cannot be underestimated. The IDF has saved a Palestinian school and two United Nations offices from a terror command building where explosives were hidden. Israeli soldiers have also liberated Jenin Camp’s Al-Nasr Mosque from Palestinian terrorists who filled its basement pits with weapons and abused its halls to plan murder.
Al-Nasr Mosque in Jenin, a holy place of worship that Palestinian terrorists used as weapons storage and explosives laboratory. The IDF freed the mosque from terror groups. See more pictures here.
Alarmist headlines in the media created panic at the start of the IDF incursion into Jenin. For example, “Israeli forces launch biggest military operation in West Bank’s Jenin since 2002,” or “Israel launched the biggest invasion of a Palestinian city since 2002.” Proving the alarmists and skeptics wrong, the IDF raid was completed in less than two days. Jenin is free from overt terrorist presence, for now. The main mosque no longer serves as a storehouse for dangerous weapons. And Palestinian law enforcement is back in town after a long absence. All 12 casualties are militants whose terror patrons confirmed their affiliations.
President Abbas’s Triumphant Return To Jenin, Made Possible By Timely IDF Action
Dramatic image of President Abbas flying off from Ramallah to Jenin
in a Jordanian helicopter on Wed., July 12, 2023.
(photo credit: Palestinian social media obtained by Watchpost)
This was historic: a triumphant return of Western-backed President Abbas to Jenin after more than a decade. He could not do it because the city had become a hotbed for Palestinian terrorist groups.
No more! Two days of an Israeli raid changed the situation for the better. Militants have dispersed from their stronghold after IDF’s swift operation last week, strengthening Palestinian Authority’s control.
A triumphant Abbas in Jenin after a decade, thanks to
IDF two-day raid last week that destroyed a terror command center
run by Palestinian militants (Source: Palestinian Authority)
Before Abbas landed, Palestinian law enforcement entered Jenin and cleared the area of symbols of militant groups. Palestinian militants – who terrorized both Palestinian civilians in Jenin and Israeli civilians across the West Bank and Israel – are now on the run, hunted down by Palestinian Preventive Security forces.
One of the most important signs that the Palestinian Authority is finally restoring its control and authority over Jenin was the removal of flags and banners left behind by Palestinian terror groups.
Palestinian Authority cranes take down posters and banners left by Palestinian
terror groups at the entrance to Jenin Camp in Jenin city before Abbas’s
triumphant return to the city after a decade. The Israeli Government and IDF take the credit for this turnaround
(Photo source: obtained by Watchpost from sources on ground)
Israel’s timely action helped dismantle Jenin’s terror headquarters and disperse the terrorists who called it home. Once the Israeli forces completed the raid and withdrew from the city, Palestinian security forces moved in and rounded up remnant terror suspects and facilitators of terror groups.
Here are some examples:
Ahmed Salatneh, center, and his two sons wanted by Palestinian security for terror links. (Photo source: Palestinian social media)
Ahmed Salatneh (center) headed a small charity suspected of links to terror groups. Local media reported July 9 that Palestinian security forces arrested him to entice his two wanted sons, suspected militants, or facilitators, to surrender.
| Morad Malaisheh, 34, is one of the founders of the Jenin Brigade. He is under arrest by Palestinian security (Photo source: Palestinian social media) |
| Terrorist Morad Malaisheh, 34, jailed by Palestinian law enforcement, leaked a letter to his colleagues in the Jenin Brigade, the main terror outfit in Jenin, on the first day of IDF’s Jenin raid telling them to resist. Of course, the IDF obliterated Jenin Brigade headquarters inside Jenin camp and sent its militants scurrying for safety. Malaisheh is threatening to go on hunger strike. In his leaked letter, he claimed Palestinian law does not prohibit terror attacks against Israeli civilians. On July 12, 2023, Palestinian security forces seized cameras, sound system, and other recording equipment from the Islamist Bloc, the student arm of Hamas at An-Najah National University in Nablus, northern West Bank. The above are three random examples that give a feel for how action in Jenin helped push Palestinian Authority to return to its policing role that it abandoned in recent years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now considering steps to further strengthen Abbas and the P.A. and prevent its collapse. In an interview with CNN earlier this week, U.S. President Joe Biden warned that the P.A. "has lost its credibility, not necessarily because of what Israel's done, just because it's just lost its credibility, number one, and number two, created a vacuum for extremism." Hamas is not happy with how the Israeli raid in Jenin resulted in strengthening the Western-backed P.A. The Gaza-based terror group issued a statement warning Palestinian law enforcement to desist from arresting Palestinian militants in the West Bank. We’re quoting it here because it reflects desperation after the Jenin raid: “We call on the influential current in the P.A. and the security apparatus of the P.A. to stop the policy of security coordination (with Israel) and political arrests, to immediately release all detainees in their prisons unjustly and unfairly, and to lift the heavy-handed (restrictions) on the resistance.” |
12 Terrorists Killed, Not Palestinian Civilians
| Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, issues a poster confirming the identities of 8 of the 12 terrorists eliminated in Jenin. The rest belonged to other terror groups that make up the Jenin Brigade (Source: Palestinian social media) |
| Within hours of te Jenin raid, a headline in a Middle Eastern news outlet screamed: “A real massacre: Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Jenin.” This overstatement has proven wrong beyond doubt. Not a single Palestinian civilian was killed because of the raid. All 12 casualties in the operation were Palestinian terrorists, members of the Jenin Brigade and other militant groups that terrorized both Israelis and Palestinians. The terror groups issued statements acknowledging that the killed combatants were affiliated with them. Israel’s security forces conducted this operation with needlepoint precision, hitting a command structure that produced 56 shooting attacks against Israeli civilians since the start of 2022. The speed of the operation shocked terror groups that likely hoped for a prolonged quagmire. In less than three days, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Shin Bet and Security Forces – under the command of the commando formation and the Menashe Brigade – struck the nerve center of terrorism in Jenin. Palestinian terror groups’ plan for civilian devastation was foiled. The fact that teenagers are among the killed terror combatants is further proof of Palestinian terror groups’ record of child-soldier recruitment. Targeting “terrorists operating from a civilian setting” was no small feat. The IDF and Shin Bet used technology and intelligence to avoid civilian casualties and limit hostilities to terrorists and terror infrastructure. |
Palestinian Governor of Jenin: I Do Not Trust Hamas With a Single Piece of Weapon In The Name of Resistance
(Source: Daily Middle East) While alarmist headlines sought to obstruct the raid against terrorists in Jenin, Akram Rajoub, the Palestinian governor of the area, was telling Palestinian media why it was necessary to stop Hamas from turning the West Bank into another Gaza. In a TV interview, Rajoub argued that Hamas cannot be trusted with arms, that it has killed opponents inside mosques and dragged bodies on streets. The Daily Middle East uploaded a segment of the interview on Twitter with English subtitling. Worth a listen.
Palestinian Authority To Aljazeera: Don’t Side With Palestinian Militants In Jenin
Palestinian Authority Information Minister Nabil Abu Rudeineh writes to the Chairman of the Board of Aljazeera to complain about the network’s coverage of Palestinian militants opposed to the Authority (Source: Twitter)
In a rare spat, the Palestinian Authority all but accused Qatar-based Al-Jazeera of showing sympathy to militants in Jenin. Nabil Abu Rudeineh wrote to Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Aljazeera Media Network.
Read the story here.
BBC Anchor’s Gaffe Helps Spotlight Palestinian Child-Soldier Recruitment
A BBC presenter sparked controversy by claiming Israeli military is “happy to kill Palestinian children.” The BBC management later apologized for the anchor’s remarks. Around the same time, Palestinian terror groups confirmed the teenagers among the 12 killed in Jenin were combatants and trained fighters. We at the American Jewish Congress issued a statement demonstrating how Israeli people are protecting Palestinian children’s future. The above infographic is from our statement.
Read it here.
If you like the infographic above, help us spread it on Twitter in English, Arabic, and Urdu languages, and on Facebook in English, Arabic, and Urdu languages.
