The IDF and Israel Security Agency uncovered a large Hamas terror cell in the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho. Israeli security forces shut down the “Aqbat Jaber Battalion” on February 5, 2023.
Israel struck an important blow on Hamas after it tried to establish itself in the Jericho area and set up a terror infrastructure in the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp. The “Aqbat Jaber Battalion” was supposed to operate in the same terrorist format established by Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank.
The IDF and Israel Security Agency operation in Aqbat Jaber is significant. During the operation, five terrorists were killed, including the two terrorists – Malek Lafi and Rafat Abeidat – who carried out the shooting attack on January 28 at the Mi Casa restaurant at Almog Junction in the Jericho area.
The successful operation came after an arrest operation on February 4, 2023, conducted by the IDF in the Aqbat Jaber camp, during which 15 armed terrorists were arrested after an hours-long exchange of gunfire.
The city of Jericho is considered the quietest city in the West Bank and is located near a main traffic axis for Israeli and Arab vehicles from the south to the north in the Jordan Valley.
The presence of armed terrorists in the Jericho area is very dangerous for Israel from a security point of view, hence the importance of the IDF operation in Aqbat Jaber.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are taking advantage of the PA’s weakness and unwillingness to fight terrorism to establish armed terrorist groups called “battalions” throughout Judea and Samaria. So far, about ten such terrorist groups have been established in the Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm areas.
Hamas’ Aqabat Jaber Battalion is an attempt by terrorist organizations to spread in the southern West Bank. The group grew in Jericho under the noses of the PA security forces who refrain from fighting against the armed terrorist groups, which forces the IDF and the Israel Security Agency to do the work in their place.
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PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the IDF operation in Aqbat Jaber and called it a crime. He demanded that the international community protect the Palestinians from Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken presented to the PA last week the administration’s plan to calm the security situation in the northern West Bank formulated by Gen. Michael Fenzel, the coordinator between the U.S. and the PA security forces. The plan had received Israel’s approval.
Fenzel proposed the establishment of a special Palestinian security force with American funding. It would undergo training in Jordan, return to the West Bank, and be stationed in Nablus and Jenin to confront the new terrorist groups that have emerged in the area.
Abbas expressed concern that the American plan would lead to civil war in the West Bank and paint him as Israel’s security contractor. He was tired of being the administration’s contractor without receiving any plan with a political horizon.
Hamas will try to hijack the city of Jericho and other cities such as Qalqilya and Tulkarm in its effort to provoke a new armed intifada against Israel. Smuggled weapons are flowing into the West Bank at an increasing rate through the border with Jordan and Israel’s security forces are finding it difficult to stop the phenomenon.
Hamas sources see the city of Jericho as of strategic importance because of its proximity to Jerusalem and the border with Jordan. Hamas plans to turn it into the southern terrorist capital of the West Bank, just as Islamic Jihad turned Jenin into the northern West Bank terrorist capital.
Aqbat Jaber has about 10,000 residents. The economic situation is poor, and the Palestinian Authority neglects its care. Armed Fatah activists from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are present there and cooperate with the operatives of the military wing of Hamas.
The battle between the IDF and the terrorist organizations for control of the Jericho area has only just begun. Senior Hamas official Souheil Al-Hindi promised revenge for the death of the five terrorists. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh referred to the IDF operation in Aqbat Jaber and predicted a disaster for the “Israeli occupation.”
He promised that the new terrorist “battalions” would continue their actions against Israel.
