Operation Summer Camps against terrorist nests in Judea and Samaria continued in full force overnight Thursday, as the Yamam (National Counter-Terrorism Unit), in cooperation with the IDF and Shin Bet, eliminated the co-founder and commander of the Tulkarem Battalion in Saraya al-Quds, Muhammad Jaber, a.k.a. Abu Shaja’a, along with several other terrorists in the Nur Shams “refugee” camp east of Tulkarem.
#عاجل| مصادر فلسطينية: استشهاد قائد #كتيبة_طولكرم في #سرايا_القدس وأحد مؤسسيها الشهيد محمد جابر “#أبو_شجاع” بعد محاصرة قوات الاحتلال #مخيم_نور_شمس لأكثر من 18 ساعة، ليلتحق بشقيقه الشهيد محمود الذي ارتقى قبل فترة . pic.twitter.com/KnpPo6sVIE
— وطن. يغرد خارج السرب (@watanserb_news) April 19, 2024
According to the IDF and the Shin Bet, Abu Shaja’a was involved in many terrorist attacks, and directed the shooting attack last June that murdered Amnon Mokhtar Hy’d. Another terrorist operative from the Tulkarem Battalion was arrested.
Earlier Thursday morning, Yamam fighters captured the terrorist Birakh Kassas, one of the leaders of the Tulkarem battalion, in a special operation in Noor al-Shams. Four terrorists were eliminated, and another terrorist was arrested in addition to Kassas. According to Arab reports, the Yamam fighters entered Noor al-Shams in civilian clothes.
At least 15 terrorists have been killed in Judea and Samaria since the beginning of Operation Summer Camps.
The IDF has been conducting three divisional operations in northern Samaria since Wednesday: in the city of Jenin, in the Pharaoh “refugee” camp in the Jordan Valley, and the Nur al-Shams “refugee” camp adjacent to Tulkarem. This aggressive activity is a response to a steep increase in the scope of alerts regarding imminent attacks initiated by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad – like the terrorist from Shechem who blew himself up outside a synagogue in the Hatikva neighborhood in Tel Aviv in the middle of August.
The IDF currently maintains 19 battalions in Judea and Samaria, of which seven battalions are on the seamline, with additional Border Guard battalions. At the beginning of the October 7 war, there were 30 battalions stationed in Judea and Samaria, and at the height of the second intifada more than 60 battalions. The operation of the past day and a half is an effort to protect the lives of half a million Jews who reside in Judea and Samaria, as well as some four million Jews living between Tel Aviv and Hadera inside Israel’s narrowest border.
The heart of the threat to Israel’s security is in northern Samaria, especially in the “refugee” camps (I place the word refugee in quotes because no one under the age of 76 living there is a refugee). Shechem led the new terrorist organizing two years ago, with a group that called itself The Lions’ Den. Israel has since killed or arrested most of their top leaders. But in Jenin, Tulkarem, and the camps there has since been a great resurgence of armed groups, inspired by the war in Gaza, often directly identified with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, receiving money, instructions, and weapons and ammunition from Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, through the porous Jordanian border.
