After two days of fighting, IDF forces completed their departure from Jenin Wednesday morning. IDF spokesman Brigadier General Daniel Hagari told Reshet Bet that “the fight against terrorism is not over. Our situation is better, the camp lost terrorist infrastructure, and we arrested more than 300 suspects.”
Hagari noted that some terrorists escaped and chose not to fight, warning, “If they return, we will take care of them.”
Armed terrorists who barricaded themselves inside the Jenin refugee camp hospital opened fire Tuesday night on IDF forces who were on their way out of the camp. The fighters returned fire at the terrorists and a heavy fight ensued. In the end, the troops continued their departure as planned. The IDF denied PA Arab reports of shooting at the hospital.
It should be noted that the popular term “refugee camp” does not apply in the case of Jenin, since the vast majority of the Arabs living there were born there and were never uprooted from any place. They are the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Arabs who fled their homes in the fledgling State of Israel when Arab armies and local Arab gangs attacked the small Jewish enclave. “Palestinians” are the only people on the planet the UN recognizes as refugees, entitled to lifelong support and benefits, even if they aren’t really refugees. For everyone else, the refugee status expires with the actual person who flees his home.
While the troops were departing the city, IDF drones attacked from the air a squad of armed terrorists who were hiding in a cemetery on the outskirts of the city. The IDF pointed out that “this is further proof of the exploitation of civilian sites throughout the city and the Jenin refugee camp by terrorist elements.”
A political official told Kan11 that the main goal of Operation House and Garden was to replace the Jenin terrorists’ feeling of immunity with a more accurate sense of persecution. According to him, the goal was achieved.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the operation in Jenin “is not a one-time event.” During a visit to the Salem outpost near the city, Netanyahu said: “We will continue as long as necessary to stamp out terrorism, we will not allow Jenin to return to being a sanctuary city for terrorism and we will stamp out terrorism wherever we see it and cripple it.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who arrived with the PM said: “In the last two years, Jenin has become a terror manufacturing plant – that’s over.”
He detailed the operation’s achievements: “In the last two days we interrupted the production process of weapons, we seized thousands of explosive charges––some small and some large, we destroyed dozens of production places, workshops, and labs.”
Gallant promised: “At the end of the day, it will take a little more time, and then we’ll reach a situation where, as a result of deploying a brigade here in Jenin, we will be able to move everywhere inside the refugee camp or anywhere else, with a team of fighters. This is the principle goal – freedom of action.”
