IDF, Israel Police, and Shin Bet forces overnight Tuesday raided a safe house of the Lions’ Den terror group in Shechem and killed five terrorists, including one of the group’s leaders, Wadih Al-Houh, 31.
עוד משכם כוח צבאי גדול נכנס לעיר לרבות גם לעיר העתיקה, במקום חילופי ירי וגם עימותים קשים. בינתיים הרוג אחד לפחות ועוד 8 פצועים מירי חי. pic.twitter.com/48ams5zLhM
— Jack khoury.جاك خوري (@KhJacki) October 24, 2022
Prime Minister Yair Lapid confirmed his assassination in a Reshet Bet radio interview Tuesday morning and noted that some of the killed terrorists had murdered the IDF’s First Sargent Ido Baruch on October 11 in a drive-by shooting outside Shavey Shomron.
The five dead terrorists are Wadih Al-Houh, Ali Antar, Hamdi Sharaf, Hamdi Al-Qayyim, and Mishaal Baghdadi. The PA Health Ministry reported a sixth killed terrorist overnight Tuesday, who was shot to death by the IDF in the village of Nabi Saleh north of Ramallah.
The raid followed weeks of intelligence work by the Shin Bet that led to identifying an unusual meeting of the heads of the Lions’ Den in the Kasbah of Shechem. The meeting took place in an explosives lab that doubled as a safe house, where the senior members of the group felt they were protected. The Shin Bet recognized the window of opportunity and called into action the special forces of the IDF and Israel Police.
The Israeli forces raided the hidden apartment in Shechem and killed five Arab terrorists. At least 21 Arab terrorists were injured in the exchange of fire that developed following the raid, according to the PA Ministry of Health.
The IDF stated that the explosives laboratory that was destroyed was used by terrorist operatives in planning additional attacks against Israelis.
According to Al Quds, four members of the PA security forces were among the wounded in clashes with Israeli forces overnight. These are salaried officers of the Palestinian Authority which Defense Minister Benny Gantz is sustaining with hundreds of thousands of dollars each month to boost the PA’s weak and corrupt government.
הסלמה בשטחים | דוברו של אבו מאזן: “התוקפנות נגד שכם היא פשע מלחמה, ממשלת הכיבוש תישא בהשלכות” • תיעוד: חילופי אש בעיר העתיקה של שכם@kaisos1987 pic.twitter.com/tWg6wMa7ak
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 25, 2022
And speaking of the PA’s weak and corrupt government, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Israel’s raid on the terrorists’ hideaway “is a war crime and the Israeli government bears full responsibility for its consequences.”
“Israel must immediately halt its crimes,” stressed Abu Rudeineh, calling on the United States to immediately intervene to stop the aggression and end the occupation before things reach a very critical point unimagined by Israel or the US administration.
