Late Monday, Kibbutz Ma'ale Gilboa, next to the border with northern Samaria and the terrorist-infested city of Jenin was hit by gunfire from the direction of the separation fence in a planned attack. Terrorists opened fire from beyond the fence on the Samaria side and hit the southern houses of the kibbutz, which are part of a new neighborhood being built there.
The terrorists escaped as the Israel Defense Forces began searching the area. The damaged houses are 500 meters from the fence and their distance from the shooting point is about 800 meters, a distance too great for the perpetrators of the attack to have any chance of targeting a specific person or house. Nonetheless, bullet holes were visible on the outer walls of some of the homes. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the unusual shooting attack, although many in the religious kibbutz were outside at the time, making pitas from the flour left over before Passover.
Shooting attack on a quiet kibbutz tonight. Residents of Ma’ale Gilboa getting ready for Passover forced to run for cover as homes hit by gunfire. Our forces searching for the suspects. pic.twitter.com/dM6b3iQS6A
— Lt. Col. Richard Hecht (@LtColRichard) April 3, 2023
Terrorist groups belonging to Fatah and Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades all joined in accepting responsibility for the attack which was published in a propaganda video uploaded to TikTok and showed the shooting. Initially, there was no certainty, both in the kibbutz and in the IDF, that this was a terrorist attack, and the army's official announcement about it was published over two and a half hours after the shooting.
Ma'ale Gilboa's security coordinator Omri Karmi spoke of the attempted attack that took place and said: "We have been hearing gunshots since Ramadan started. Yesterday was an unusual incident. Our kibbutz is located 400 meters from the separation fence and the shooting was carried out from the Jenin region."
While the groups have worked jointly in the past, their cooperation in this particular region, and specifically in such an uncharacteristic attack, may signal a strengthening local branch of these groups - much like the Lion's Den group in Nablus and Jenin.
— Alon Burstein (@AlonBurstein) April 3, 2023
Unfolding
According to him, "every movement of IDF forces in the area gives a sense of security. The scenario we fear the most is an intrusion and an attack inside the kibbutz. Yesterday's attack is a Tiktok attack," he added, "its whole purpose is to scare the residents. However, we will continue our lives as normal."
The attack in Israel’s northern district comes after Earlier an attack was foiled in the Old City of Jerusalem. Israeli security guards stationed near the Damascus gate in the city suspected a Rahat resident in her 30s of holding her hand in a bag for a long time. The soldiers who went to find out what she was doing found scissors inside the bag and arrested her.
For more details on the incident, click herehttps://t.co/LNKrvR3ATF
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 3, 2023
The woman was taken for questioning in which she admitted that she intended to stab a police officer with the scissors. This morning the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court extended her remand by another week.
