The Battle In Jenin Camp

The city of Jenin has been one of the two main centers of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria; the other is Nablus. According to the IDF, since last year, some 50 shooting attacks against Israelis were carried out by residents of the Jenin area, and 19 wanted Palestinians escaped to Jenin to seek refuge there from Israeli forces.

Shortly after 1 a.m. on Monday, July 3, the Israelis launched their largest assault in Judea and Samaria in more than 20 years, with 1,000 IDF troops entering the Jenin camp from all sides. The main aim of the battle was to destroy the ability of the Jenin Battalion, that belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to harm Israelis. The campaign was expected by the Israelis to last a few days, perhaps a week at most. In the event, it took Israel only 44 hours, less than two days, to accomplish all that its forces had intended to accomplish. These were to find and destroy all of the weapons storehouses and weapons manufacturing plants hidden throughout the camp inside Jenin, to destroy the Jenin Battalion’s command centers in the camp, and to neutralize any terrorists who confronted the IDF soldiers, while taking care to minimize civilian casualties. All three goals were achieved.

Within a few hours after the invasion began, Israeli bulldozers had systematically pulled up the roads where terrorists had concealed explosive devices, putting civilians and troops at risk. This destruction of roads enabled the IDF to dig up the IEDs and use the roadways safely. That was a tactic – destroying the tarmac – that the jihadists had not anticipated.

The military said the “counter-terrorism operation” was focused on seizing weapons and “breaking the safe haven mindset of the camp.” Both were achieved. The terrorists of the Jenin Battalion had believed that the Israelis would never try to invade their stronghold; after all, the IDF had not invaded Judea and Samaria in more than 20 years. They assumed that any raid would be just like the half-dozen the Israelis had made into Jenin in the previous few months. So it was a complete shock to them to find more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers suddenly in their midst, piercing straight to the center of the Jenin refugee camp, locating and destroying one concealed weapons storehouse after another. But there must have been an intimation among the PIJ leaders that the Israelis were up to something – possibly a probing attack not on the camp but on the larger city of Jenin — because almost all of the Jenin Battalion’s leaders had fled not just the camp, but the city, of Jenin, the day before the Israeli invasion.

Throughout the 44-hour campaign, the IDF said, troops located and demolished at least eight weapon storage sites, six explosives labs with hundreds of primed devices, three war rooms used by Palestinian gunmen to observe Israeli forces, and other “terror infrastructure.” The IDF said it had also seized 24 assault rifles, 8 handguns and dozens of bullets.

The IDF forces made a thorough perlustration of the entire Jenin camp. Their most important find was a trap door in the floor of the mosque, which they uncovered, and found below the building a vast underground weapons depot, which they promptly blew up. They also found similar weapons depots, though none quite so large, under schools and other supposedly “civilian” structures, including residences.

Troops also carried out some 20 drone strikes against various targets in the refugee camp.

The IDF also killed 18 Palestinians, all of them combatants, and wounded more than 100 Palestinians, which the IDF said included some non-combatants. The Palestinians have apparently decided to minimize their losses, claiming that “only” 12 of their fighters had been killed.

As the IDF withdrew, it used drones to hit a group of gunmen waiting at the Jenin cemetery to attack them. A parting shot, in every sense.

In these 44 hours of fighting, exactly one Israeli soldier died. This was Sgt. First Class David Yehuda Yitzhak, from the elite Egoz commando unit, who was killed while helping to secure the IDF troops’ withdrawal.

The Palestinians, of course, living as always in their fantasy world, described the latest “battle of Jenin” as a complete victory for their side. In their view, they “drove the Israelis out.” More on their Allahu-akbaring delirium can be found here: “Palestinians celebrate ‘victory’ after IDF pullout from Jenin,” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2023:

Hundreds of Palestinians, chanting Allahu Akbar! (God is [the] greatest), took to the streets of the city of Jenin and its refugee camp late Tuesday to celebrate after Israeli security forces completed their withdrawal from the area.

Flashing V-for-Victory signs with their hands, the Palestinians also chanted slogans in support of the local armed groups, specifically the Jenin Battalion, a militia said to be directed and funded by the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Most of the commanders of the Jenin Battalion had fled the Jenin Refugee Camp shortly before the start of the large-scale Israeli security operation.

“We taught them an unforgivable lesson,” said 23-year-old Ahmed Rashid, referring to the Israeli soldiers. “They were forced to pull out less than two days after the invasion because they failed to achieve most of their goals. Thank God, most of the fighters have not been harmed.”

Palestinian sources said 12 Palestinians were killed and at least 120 injured, 30 of them seriously, during the Israeli operation. Almost all those killed were identified as gunmen….

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said the Palestinian “resistance taught the enemy a harsh lesson and made it suffer heavy losses.”

The “heavy losses” the Israelis suffered consisted of exactly one dead soldier. And so far there have been no reports of any IDF soldiers being wounded.

In a statement early Wednesday, Haniyeh said that the coming days “will expose the size of the violent blow the resistance dealt to the enemy.”

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, praised the Jenin camp and its “resistance and victory over the Zionist enemy army.” He added: “Jenin has once again defeated the occupation army. We announced from the beginning that the occupation will fail to achieve its goals. Jenin camp will remain a fortress of resistance and a thorn in the side of the occupation, and the revolution in the Arab West Bank will continue to escalate until the goals of our people are achieved.”

The Israeli military, which has that ingrained habit of always telling the truth, has quite a different view: “All the forces have left Jenin. We have finished the operation – its goals have been achieved,” IDF Chief Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israeli military radio station Galei Tzahal.

Nothing will disabuse the wretched Palestinians of their dreams of glory. The IDF left the Jenin Camp within 44 hours, not because they were chased out by the Palestinians, but because they had accomplished all of its goals.

Others — Fatima Muhammad, Ilhan Omar, Nihad Awad, the whole crazed galère — can fantasize along with Hamas about the “great victory” the Palestinians claim to have achieved in the Jenin camp. But you and I know the truth — the most satisfying truth.