Israel Braces for Gaza Retaliation Following Clashes

Israeli authorities are bracing for retaliation Palestinian attacks following intense clashes in Jenin on Thursday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi met Thursday afternoon to assess the situation.

Halevi has instructed the IDF to “increase preparedness and continue counterterrorism activities as needed,” the IDF said, following the assessment he held with top military officials.

On Thursday morning, undercover Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp in an unusual daylight raid to arrest three local Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders who were planning “significant” terror attacks. Clashes broke out with Palestinians firing guns and throwing Molotov cocktails and stones. The PIJ said its members also detonated a number of explosives around the camp.

Nine Palestinians, mostly members of the terror group, were killed during the clashes.

Gunfire, stone throwing and tire burnings spread to other areas of Yehudah and Shomron. In one attack in the outskirts of Ramallah, an IDF soldier was lightly wounded by Palestinian gunfire.

A spokesman for Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza said the terror group is “ready and willing for the next confrontation.”

Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’s deputy leader, insisted that Israel “will pay the price for the Jenin massacre.”

According to Palestinian media reports, Egyptian, Qatari and U.N. officials are mediating between the Gaza terror groups in a bid to calm tensions.