The IDF, including Mista’arvim special forces Haruv and Duvdevan, overnight Thursday began an extensive divisional operation in the Nur al-Shams “refugee” camp near Tulkarem.
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari tweeted that during the operation, a drone attacked two terrorists who “posed an immediate danger to our forces.”
במסגרת פעילות משותפת של צה”ל ושב”כ, כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף כלי רכב בו היו שני מחבלי גא״פ בכירים במרחב ג׳נין.
בתקיפה חוסל אחמד ברכאת אשר ביצע את פיגוע הירי בחרמש במאי 2023, בו נרצח מאיר תמרי ז”ל וכן הותקף מחמד חוואשין, מפקד תשתית הטרור של הגא״פ בג׳נין, לצד שני מחבלים נוספים>> pic.twitter.com/S8zRCNDAy1
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 20, 2024
The large forces that entered the camp are carrying out arrests, uncovering explosive charges, and engaging in battles with armed terrorists. So far, four terrorists have been killed, two in the drone airstrike and two in an exchange of fire.
Earlier on Thursday, a drone killed three terrorists who were in a jeep in the Jenin “refugee” camp. It was the 45th drone kill in Judea and Samaria since October 7, 2023. And then came drone kill 46.
One of the terrorists who was eliminated is Hamada Barkhat, known as Abu al-Hani, who was one of the perpetrators of the attack in Hermesh in May of last year, in which Meir Tamari Hy’d was murdered. Also, Muhammad Hawashin, the commander of the terrorist infrastructure of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin, was killed, along with two other terrorists, Muhammad al-Fayed and Muhammad Rahel.
Barkhat and Hawashin were both involved in the attempt to infiltrate Tel Aviv with an armed terrorist, and the explosive charge attack that wounded seven IDF soldiers near Homesh junction.
According to Al Quds, an IDF bulldozer demolished part of a house in the center of the Nur al-Shams camp, belonging to the father of killed terrorist Mahmoud Jaber, and the imprisoned terrorist Muhammad Jaber, while IDF forces were fighting elsewhere in the city of Tulkarem and the camp.
The bulldozers continued to tear down the infrastructure in the camp’s neighborhoods and destroyed Martyr Saif Abu Libda Square. The extensive bulldozing is carried out because the terrorists booby-trap the pavements against incoming IDF forces.
The IDF ordered the residents of the Al-Mansheya neighborhood in the camp, using loudspeakers, to leave their homes, before some of them were demolished.
The operation is supported by patrols, vehicles, and snipers on either side of the roads leading to the camp, specifically at its main entrance along Nablus Street, the Dhanaba suburb area, Jabal al-Nasr, and al-Salihin, as well as the Aktaba housing project opposite the camp.
Currently, a curfew has been declared in Tulkarem.
