The “escalation” as it is being called in Israeli media, by the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday night after the usage of a drone to strike a terrorist squad that had shot up the Jalma crossing, is not expected to spread to the rest of Judea and Samaria. However, the use of armed drones is expected to still be employed in the Nablus and Jenin areas which are hotbeds of militant activity that the Palestinian Authority cannot control.
The background for the shift in tactics by the IDF in using drones is the growing threat of terrorism from these two specific areas in Northern Samaria, where most of the recent terrorists came out. In an interview with Yegioth Ahronoth published this morning, Major General Tamir Hyman, director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said that "what was done was the right thing operationally." The usage of armed drones has been relegated to other areas - Israel has not used armed drones in Judea or Samaria until now.
Pictured in front (with no mask) is Suhaib al-Ghoul, leader of the Jenin Battalion, who was killed by an IDF drone strike tonight as he was on the way to carry out a shooting attack.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) June 21, 2023
Also pictured, front and center: a child soldier/terrorist.
This is a war crime. pic.twitter.com/jGcEWcdztC
In fact, unlike in the Gaza Strip, it is not a matter of targeted elimination of terrorists about whom there was advance intelligence, of terrorists with a "profile", but of thwarting terrorists who pose a real imminent threat, such as the terrorist who carried out the attack in Eli and was eliminated in Tubas shortly after. When the IDF and the Shin Bet dealt with the Lion’s Den squad in Nablus, for example, a terrorist was eliminated using a bomb planted in a motorcycle. In short, the IDF is looking for less-invasive ways to complete their tasks.
That is in practice, despite the escalation of measures aimed at creating deterrence against the terrorists in northern Samaria. The arrest operations of the wanted in Nablus and Jenin, where Israeli troops arrive at the refugee camps and center of towns and are often forced to exchange fire with terrorists, are still expected to continue.
The IDF takes out a terror cell from Jenin with a drone. https://t.co/sr864IBfm2
— Lidar Gravé-Lazi (@LidarGL) June 21, 2023
However, in any case, the use of drones is a very aggressive tool that will be included in the toolbox against the terrorists in Jenin and Nablus, who carry out shooting attacks against towns, military posts, and checkpoints.
The terrorists were thwarted yesterday using a Hermes 450 UAV, after leaving Jenin, they opened fire towards the Jalma crossing and were on their way to another attack with three automatic weapons in the car they were traveling in on a road that is used by both Israeli and Palestinian drivers. According to a joint announcement by the IDF and the Shin Bet, "The IDF thwarted a terrorist squad that carried out several shooting attacks against settlements in Judea and Samaria in recent times. The IDF forces, under the precise intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet, identified a short time ago a suspicious vehicle containing a terrorist squad, after it carried out a shooting near Jalma. After identifying the squad, an IDF unmanned aerial vehicle fired at the squad and thwarted it."
