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If you shoot [rockets], we will respond harshly,’ IDF tells Gaza-based terror groups.
By: Lauren Marcus – worldIsraelnews.com
After the Israeli army launched a wide scale operation targeting terrorists in Jenin on Monday morning, the military warned the Gaza-based Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups not to launch retaliatory rocket fire against Israel.
According to Kan News, senior military officials sent strongly-worded messages to their counterparts in the terror groups, urging them to avoid responding to the IDF offensive in Jenin.
“Don’t intervene because you are not being targeted. If you shoot [rockets], we will respond harshly. An attack would be a mistake, and we will respond with all our might,” a source told Kan News, describing the message sent to senior terror operatives.
In a statement, Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh called on the Palestinian people “to support Jenin and safeguard its citizens to foil [Israel’s] schemes.”
Haniyeh added that “the outcome of [Israel’s] offensive against Jenin will shape the forthcoming phase.”
Jenin has long served as a hotbed for terror groups, as the weakened Palestinian Authority has lost legitimacy and governing power in the city.
Numerous deadly attacks against Israeli civilians in recent years have been carried out by terrorists from the city or nearby towns and villages.
It’s unclear whether Hamas will respond with rocket fire to the Israeli counterterror raid of the city. While the terror group does use the city as an operations base, along with Islamic Jihad, Hamas has been reticent to engage in conflict with Israel since the May 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls clash.
During the recent May 2023 Operation Shield and Arrow fighting, Hamas did not launch rockets at Israel after the IAF targeted Islamic Jihad sites in the Strip.
In August 2022, Hamas similarly did not respond or aid the Islamic Jihad terror group when its assets were bombed by the Israeli air force, choosing to stay out of the conflict.
A Palestinian source in Gaza told the Tazpit Press Service that Hamas deployed its border guard forces to prevent disturbances along the border with Israel on Monday morning and that the terror group has already thwarted an attempt to launch a rocket at Israel. The move amidst a widespread Israeli counter-terror operation in the city of Jenin.
The source said the attempted launch was in the area of Beit Hanoun, in the northeast area of the Gaza Strip, as was reported by TPS.
The Israel Defense Forces is preparing for the possibility that Gaza terror groups will fire rockets and raised its level of alert along the Gaza border. According to Hebrew media reports, Israel also warned Gaza terror groups not to escalate the conflict.
The Eshkol Regional Council, which represents Israel’s northwest Negev communities adjacent to Gaza, said they have not received any special instructions from the IDF Homefront Command.
Israel launched a major counter-terror operation in the Palestinian city of Jenin, including the refugee camp, in the early hours of Monday morning. Fierce fighting is taking place inside Jenin and within its refugee camp.
The IDF struck a building in the UN-administered refugee camp which it said served as a joint war room for where the city’s terror groups coordinated their activities. The IDF said the building also “served as an observation post, a gathering place for armed terrorists before and after terror acts, a cache for munitions and bombs and a communications center.”
(WIN & TPS)
