Five Palestinian Terrorists Killed in Raid Near Jericho

At least five Palestinian terrorists were killed on Monday morning in an IDF raid on a refugee camp near Jericho. The IDF said that the dead were Hamas terrorists and members of a terror cell that attempted to carry out a shooting attack at a restaurant near Jericho last month.

The attempted attack targeted a restaurant in Vered Yericho on Jan. 28, when two terrorists attempted to fire at a restaurant in which 30 people were present. The terrorists’ weapons jammed and the two fled back to Jericho.

The Shin Bet and IDF Intelligence Directorate discovered that the two had barricaded themselves in an apartment in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho and intended to continue conducting attacks.

Last week, a new terrorist cell affiliated with Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades announced its establishment in the Aqabat Jaber camp. Members of the cell, which called itself the Aqabat Jaber Battalion, were said to have conducted armed clashes with Israeli forces operating in the Jericho area.

Israeli forces had attempted to arrest the members of the cell behind the attempted attack on the weekend, but failed to do so. A number of other suspects who are part of the Hamas cell were arrested in that raid and at least 13 Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

On Monday morning, armed clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces as they entered Jericho and the Aqabat Jaber camp, with a number of Palestinians reportedly killed and at least three wounded, according to Palestinian reports.

No Israeli personnel were wounded in the operation, baruch Hashem.

The bodies of the five terrorists killed in the clashes have been seized by Israeli forces, according to the Governor of Jericho and the Jordan Valley, Jihad Abu Al-Assal.