The terror cell was responsible for a number of shootings, including on an IDF checkpoint near Jenin, according to the Israeli military.
By JNS and World Israel News Staff
The Israeli military on Thursday eliminated a three-man terror cell in Samaria, in a drone strike on their vehicle that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed as “flipping the equation” against terrorists.
The cell had fired on a military checkpoint near Jalamah in the Jenin area, and was responsible for a number of attacks on Judea and Samaria communities, according to a joint statement by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Defense Forces.
Two of the terrorists were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while the third was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, according to Tazpit Press Service.
It was the first drone strike carried out by the Israeli military in Judea and Samaria since 2006, according to IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari. Three weapons were also found in the vehicle, he added.
“This was about removing a threat,” said Hagari. “We identified a vehicle shooting at the crossing and removed the threat.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also commented on the strike.
“I praise the security forces who a short time ago carried out a targeted elimination of a terrorist squad that was firing towards Israeli territory, and had previously carried out several shooting attacks,” he said.
“Against terrorism we will take an offensive and proactive approach, we will use all the means at our disposal and we will exact the heaviest price from any terrorist or terrorist courier,” he added. “We will pursue and overtake our enemies.”
On Monday, an Apache helicopter gunship was called in to cover the evacuation of wounded Israeli forces from Jenin, marking the first Israeli airstrike in Judea and Samaria since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
Netanyahu praised the strike, saying that the IDF “settled the score” with the terror cell, which was responsible for several shooting attacks.
“We are always surprising, we are always flipping the equation,” he said in a video statement.
“We have done it during Operation Shield and Arrow and we did it again last night in Jenin.
“The cell that was taken out by an unmanned aerial vehicle has carried out several terror attacks in the past and it was about to carry out more,” Netanyahu said.
The post ‘IDF is always surprising’: Israel kills 3 terrorists in drone strike appeared first on World Israel News.