The Israeli military eliminated a leading Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror commander as it pressed ahead with a major counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank.
Mohammed Jaber, wanted for the murder of an Israeli civilian, had masterminded several terrorist attacks. “Muhammad Jabber,”Abu Shujaa”, was involved in carrying out numerous terror attacks, including a shooting attack in which an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, was murdered in June. Jabber was also involved in the planning of additional terror attacks,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Thursday.
The slain terror commander had managed to survive a previous IDF strike. “The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarem,” the Associated Press reported Thursday. “He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier in the year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.”
Jabber and four other PIJ terrorists was taken out by the Israeli Special Forces as they fired from inside a mosque in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, a major jihadist stronghold.
The jihadist commander was apparently killed in an attempt to lure Israeli troops into a trap “The security forces dismantled dozens of explosive devices that were planted under the roads intended to be used in attacks on the forces,” the Israeli broadcaster Arutz Sheva disclosed.
The Times of Israel reported the details of the raid:
In Tulkarem, troops of Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit were dispatched to a mosque in the city following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet of a group of gunmen holed up there.The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.The Israeli forces had fired shoulder-launched missiles at the mosque as part of the tactic, and two gunmen were killed.In an adjacent building, another four gunmen were identified, and three of them were killed in an exchange of fire with the Yamam officers, while the fourth surrendered.In all, five Palestinian gunmen were killed and one Israeli Yamam officer was lightly hurt in the exchange, according to the military.Among the dead in the mosque was Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, who Palestinian media had previously reported to be the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem. (..)The detained terror operative in the building adjacent to the mosque was identified by Palestinian media as Mohammed Qassas, a founding member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem.
The Islamic Jihad suffered another blow after Israeli airstrike killed another of its terrorist commanders in Gaza.
The PIJ commander Osama Jadallah was eliminated while hiding in the Hamas-bastion of Rafah. “IDF troops continue operational activity in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip. Over the past day, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters encounters and in aerial strikes,” the IDF said in a press release Thursday. “One of the terrorists eliminated in the area of Khan Yunis was Osama Jadallah, a commander in the Islamic Jihad’s intelligence unit who took part in the October 7th Massacre.”
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) was carrying out extensive strikes on terror targets across Gaza. “Over the past day, the IAF struck approximately 40 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including manned launch posts, military structures, terror infrastructure, and more,” the military said in a statement Thursday.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY