An exchange of gunfire took place overnight Monday between a force from the Border Police’s Mista’arvim unit and PA Arabs during the arrest of a Hamas operative in Jenin.
The Mista’arvim are Israeli counter-terrorism units who are trained to assimilate among the local Arab population (as in the popular show Fauda, available with your Netflix subscription).
According to police, during the operation, Arab gunmen opened heavy fire from a short-range on the force, to which the force responded with fire. According to the IDF, four Arabs were killed in the incident and three injured. The unit took with it two of the bodies. Our force did not suffer any casualties.
תיעוד שמופץ בכלי התקשורת הפלסטיניים: עימותים בין כוחות מג”ב לבין פלסטינים במחנה הפליטים ג’נין pic.twitter.com/juRdEhHuzz
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
In the WAFA version of Monday morning’s events, “four Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli army gunfire during a raid into the northern West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp.”
Sources in Jenin told WAFA the Israeli soldiers detained Mohammad Abu Zaina, 26, after raiding his home in the Jenin refugee camp. Abu Zaina is suspected of trying to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel through terrorist elements from the Gaza Strip. He has previously served a prison sentence in an Israeli prison for security offenses.
Sources at Jenin hospital told WAFA that Saleh Amar, 19, from Jenin refugee camp, and Raed Abu Saif, 21, from Jenin city, were both killed by Israeli gunfire, noting that the Israeli forces kidnapped the bodies of two more slain Arabs, one of them identified as Nour Jarrar from Jenin city while the fourth has yet to be identified. Additionally, Israeli forces also shot Amjad Azmi, who was reported in serious condition.
A general strike and a day of mourning have been declared in the city.
The official spokesman for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, issued a statement saying: “We express the presidency’s strong anger and condemnation of this heinous crime, and we affirm that the continuation of this Israeli policy will lead to an explosion of the situation and to more tension and instability.”
He called on the US administration and the international community to pressure Israel to stop “its attacks against Palestinians” so that matters do not reach an uncontrollable stage.
In reality, no one is happier than the “presidency” in Ramallah that Israel is picking up their worst enemies, the Hamas terrorists in Judea and Samaria, but appearances must be kept. No doubt, Abu Zaina’s address was provided to the Israelis by PA Security.
An Israeli police source confirmed that the bodies of the two dead terrorists were taken to Israel on the orders of the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, according to the usual protocol for terrorist attacks.
This is the second incident of its kind in two weeks in the Jenin area, where the PA security forces are finding it difficult to control the situation. Earlier this month, the PA reported six who had been injured in an exchange of gunfire that broke out between an Israeli police force that entered the Jenin camp to detain wanted suspects and Arab gunmen. None of the Israeli police officers were injured.
The IDF noted that recent arrest operations in Jenin have encountered strong opposition from local armed terrorists, some of whom are indirectly connected to Fatah.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem called the incident a “heroic confrontation of martyrs with soldiers of the occupation army, who broke into the refugee camp.” According to him, “the pure blood of the martyrs of Jenin is the guarantee for the continuation of the war for liberation, until the expulsion of the occupation from all our Palestinian lands.”
So sit back and get something from the fridge, this Fauda series is definitely getting renewed for many more seasons.