Terrorism

The P.A. reported that two Palestinians were killed during the counterterror operation.

(JNS)

An Israeli Defense Forces soldier was moderately injured by shrapnel and taken to a hospital during a counterterrorism operation early Sunday in the Nur Shams camp, east of Tulkarm in northwestern Samaria.

Terrorists threw explosives and shot at the Israeli forces, who responded with live fire. “Hits were detected,” the IDF said.

Palestinian Authority health officials said that two Palestinians were killed during the Israeli raid.

The P.A. Health Ministry reported that Asid Abu Ali, 21, and Abdulrahman Abu Daghash, 32, were killed by Israeli fire during the military activities.

The IDF said that soldiers located a building in the camp and dismantled an operational command center inside that “contained observation devices, computers and technological devices. Additionally, the forces located another room and neutralized dozens of ready-to-use explosive devices, gas-based explosive devices, and a large number of components for making explosive devices.”

The IDF documented the destruction of the terrorist command center.

IDF engineering vehicles also operated in the area to uncover explosive devices planted under the roads. The vehicles uncovered a large number of explosive devices that exploded, including at least one IED.

The Israeli bulldozers caused “heavy damage to roads,” the AP reported

The counterterrorism operation comes amid heightened security tensions in Israel ahead of Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday evening and is the holiest occasion on the Jewish calendar.

Thousands of police officers, security personnel and volunteers are to be deployed throughout the country to prevent terrorist attacks during the holiday, with a special emphasis on Jerusalem, mixed Jewish-Arab cities, synagogues and other places where Jews gather for prayer.

Police are calling for licensed gun holders to bring their weapons to Yom Kippur prayers at the synagogue they attend.

On Saturday evening, a general closure was imposed on all of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip crossings were closed, with the borders reopening at midnight after Yom Kippur ends on Monday evening. During this period, only transit crossings involving humanitarian and medical cases will be allowed and only with the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit.

Already before Rosh Hashanah kicked off the High Holiday season, police had raised the alert level in Israel amid an increase in warnings of possible terrorist attacks and a spike in social media incitement by terrorist groups.

“The number of warnings leading up to Yom Kippur is increasing. That is why we call on worshippers to watch out for their safety, and for those who [legally] bear arms to come to prayers with their weapons,” said Maj. Gen. Sigal Bar-Zvi, head of the Israel Police’s operations division.

Image: Israeli forces operate in the Nur Shams camp, east of Tulkarm in Samaria, Sept. 24, 2023. Credit: IDF.

Arabs also threw stones at an Israeli vehicle.

(JNS)

Three separate terror shootings were reported in Samaria on Sunday, with no casualties from the incidents that came hours before the start of Yom Kippur.

In the latest attack, terrorists opened fire at the Israeli community of Hinanit, nine miles west of Jenin in northern Samaria. The window of a home was struck during the attack.

Earlier in the day, terrorists shot at a military vehicle near Avnei Hefetz, close to Tulkarm in western Samaria, and before that terrorists opened fire at a military position near the village of Shuweika, which has become part of Tulkarm city.

Also on Sunday, Arab terrorists stoned a vehicle traveling on Route 55 between the Palestinian town of Azzun and the Israeli town of Ma’ale Shomron, near Qalqilya in Samaria.

No injuries were reported but the car’s windshield was damaged.

The attacks come amid heightened security tensions in Israel ahead of Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday evening and is the holiest occasion on the Jewish calendar.

Thousands of police officers, security personnel and volunteers are to be deployed throughout the country to prevent terrorist attacks during the holiday, with a special emphasis on Jerusalem, mixed Jewish-Arab cities, synagogues and other places where Jews gather for prayer.

Police are calling for licensed gun holders to bring their weapons to Yom Kippur prayers at the synagogue they attend.

On Saturday evening, a general closure was imposed on all of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip crossings were closed, with the borders reopening at midnight after Yom Kippur ends on Monday evening. During this period, only transit crossings involving humanitarian and medical cases will be allowed and only with the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit.

Already before Rosh Hashanah kicked off the High Holiday season, police had raised the alert level in Israel amid an increase in warnings of possible terrorist attacks and a spike in social media incitement by terrorist groups.

“The number of warnings leading up to Yom Kippur is increasing. That is why we call on worshippers to watch out for their safety, and for those who [legally] bear arms to come to prayers with their weapons,” said Maj. Gen. Sigal Bar-Zvi, head of the Israel Police’s operations division.

Image: IDF soldiers secure the scene of a shooting attack on a bus on Route 90 in the Jordan Valley, Sept. 4, 2022. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90.

The Gaza terror group is sending Palestinian civilians into harm’s way in an apparent effort to pressure Qatar, via Israel, into restoring cut funding.

Yaakov Lappin

(JNS)

Despite claims that the recent attacks and disturbances along the Gaza-Israel border, orchestrated by Hamas, are motivated by supposed Israeli conspiracies against the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, they are in fact merely a violent negotiation tactic designed to secure more income for Gaza’s terrorist rulers.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of Palestinians have taken part in a series of violent riots adjacent to the Gaza security fence, setting off a number of explosive devices along the barrier.

On Sept. 13, six Gazans were killed by an explosive device hurled by one of the rioters.

On Friday, the situation escalated, with Gazans renewing the launch of incendiary balloons across the border, causing fires in southern Israel.

The IDF responded on Friday and Saturday with airstrikes targeting Hamas terror outposts in the Strip.

Taken together, the incidents are reminiscent of the 2018-2019 Gaza border disturbances, though smaller in scope so far.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, announced last week that the Erez Border Crossing, through which some 20,000 Gazan Palestinians cross into Israel for work every day, would remain closed, after being shut for the Rosh Hashana holiday.

The decision to shut the crossing is more significant than it might seem, because it signals to Hamas that violence on the border will achieve the opposite of what it is trying to obtain—increased income.

Since the end of the IDF’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in 2021, Gaza’s economy has overall seen improvements, with increasing numbers of Gazans working in Israel, rising exports, goods flowing in and Qatar providing monthly funding to the tune of $30 million.

But recently, a number of developments have rained on Hamas’s economic parade. Global inflation rose, and Qatar, dissatisfied with Hamas’s relations with rival states—particularly Syria—while also assessing that Gaza’s economy is on better footing, decreased its funding.

Under the Qatari funding mechanism, the Gulf state purchases Egyptian fuel for Gaza’s power plant, while also funding Hamas’s civilian administration in Gaza and providing funds for poor Gazan families.

The decrease in Qatari funding has left Hamas’s civilian government in financial distress. Inflation, meanwhile, has harmed purchasing power of Gazan civilians, putting more pressure on Hamas.

The result is that Hamas has restarted its border riots, in an apparent effort to pressure Qatar via Israel to restore the funding to its previous levels.

Hamas’s tactics are brutal, sending Palestinian civilians into harm’s way for money. The terror group is banking on Israel to succumb to this extortion.

Palestinians are thus incited to approach the fence with IEDs, risking their lives as they attempt to sabotage Israel’s security barrier, which can no longer be torn apart with wire cutters as was the case in 2018-2019.

The taller barrier also makes it more difficult for IDF forces to fire across it accurately, but the military must still ensure that no terrorists infiltrate into Israel and approach western Negev communities. Israel views every attack on the barrier as an assault on its sovereignty.

Unfortunately, Hamas has seen such extortion attempts pay off in the past, and it is hoping this one will as well.

Meanwhile, parallel to this, Hamas uses its “West Bank Headquarters” in Gaza and Lebanon—terror command centers—to both orchestrate terrorist attacks and galvanize unorganized violence.

Israel’s defense establishment and intelligence community is, it is safe to assume, closely monitoring these developments and activating countermeasures against them.

Image: Six Gazans were killed when an explosive device meant to target IDF soldiers detonated prematurely during mass riots along the border with Israel, Sept. 13, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS.

Tensions with the Gaza Strip have exploded over the past two weeks amid a renewal of violent demonstrations along the border.

(JNS)

A Palestinian terrorist was shot and wounded at the Gaza border fence on Thursday after opening fire on Israeli security forces amid violent riots, the Israel Police confirmed in a statement.

A video of the incident, shared by the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit, showed the Gazan shooting at Israeli security personnel with a handgun. “Undercover officers from the southern Border Police fired at the terrorist and hit him. There were no casualties to our forces,” stated the police.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas terrorist organization, said the Palestinian gunman was seriously wounded.

Tensions with the Gaza Strip have exploded over the past two weeks amid a renewal of violent demonstrations along the border, and as the heads of Palestinian terrorist groups called for a new intifada against the Jewish state.

Hundreds of Palestinians have participated in the riots, hurling bombs and grenades at the security barrier, prompting Israeli forces to respond with riot dispersal methods and in some cases live fire.

Six Palestinians were killed on Sept. 14 when a homemade explosive device they had been attempting to place on the security fence detonated prematurely.

Hamas “sends civilians to the border to create friction with the IDF, so that there are wounded and dead and the press will talk about it,” Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus, the former international spokesperson for Israel’s military, told i24News on Thursday.

“Last week, we saw Palestinians killed by an explosive that they attempted to launch at the IDF, and now we see the use of firearms to kill Israeli soldiers,” said Conricus.

I think it is excellent that we use these images so that the world understands what we are talking about and that the international media does not get carried away by Hamas’s propaganda,” he added.

Image: Terrorists affiliated with the Hamas-led Joint Operations Room attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, Sept. 20, 2023. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

About an hour after the alert was issued, residents were given the all-clear.

(JNS)

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday night the activation of an infiltration alert in the Israeli community of Hashmonaim, located near Modi’in but over the Green Line.

Residents of the town, located in the Binyamin region halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, were instructed to remain in their homes, with their doors locked and lights off, until further notice.

Security forces closed off all entrances to Hashmonaim, in addition to prohibiting movement inside the community.

According to Israel National News, the siren was activated after two suspicious vehicles entered the community.

About an hour after the alert was issued, residents were given the all-clear, with the IDF’s Home Front Command stressing that there was no security incident.

A spokesperson for the Binyamin Regional Council, in a statement cited by local media, commended residents for following the emergency protocol.

The alert came as Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists fought in the Jenin refugee camp, the latest flare-up in the flashpoint northern Samaria region.

Israeli media reported that elite forces were spearheading the mission targeting a senior commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Image: Hashmonaim from the north, with Modi’in in the background. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The three suspects, residents of Urif, south of Nablus, were “partners in the planning and execution of the attack” near Eli on June 20 that left four Israelis dead and four more wounded.

(JNS)

Israeli forces on Tuesday mapped for demolition the homes of three terrorists involved in a shooting in June that left four Israeli civilians dead, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Troops operated in the Palestinian village of Urif, south of Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria, to prepare the homes for potential demolition.

The IDF said that the three suspects were “partners in the planning and execution of the attack.” Bassel Shehadeh, Hamed Sabah and a third, unnamed Palestinian were indicted in August for assisting the two gunmen who carried out the murders.

Four Israelis were killed and four others wounded in the shooting, which occurred on June 20 near the town of Eli in the Binyamin region of Samaria.

The masked terrorists were armed with M-16 rifles. An armed Israeli civilian managed to kill one of the terrorists at the scene of the attack, while the second was killed some hours later by Israeli security forces.

The forces tracked down the terrorist’s stolen car close to the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Tubas, northeast of Shechem. The terrorist tried to escape and was shot dead.

Both shooters were members of Hamas and came from Urif. The Gaza-based terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was a “heroic” response to the killing of seven Palestinians by Israeli forces the previous day during clashes with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

The night following the Eli attack, Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria rioted in the Arab town, seeking revenge for the murders, with injuries and damage reported.

On July 3, Israel launched a major counter-terrorism operation in Jenin. According to the IDF, the city had become a “safe haven” for terrorists, who in recent months had launched some 50 attacks from Jenin against Israelis.

Judea and Samaria leaders welcomed the Jenin operation following the Eli attack, with the head of the Beit El Regional Council, Shai Alon, saying that “all the residents of Judea and Samaria stand behind the security forces and support their operation to restore quiet to the entire region.”

Image: Israeli soldiers map the home in Nablus of Muad Masri, one of the Hamas terrorists who murdered three members of the Dee family, June 13, 2023. Credit: IDF.

Security forces detained the suspects on a highway near Ramla; the blast caused no injuries.

(JNS)

Two suspects were arrested on Friday on a highway close to Ramla in central Israel on suspicion of involvement in a bombing just hours earlier in Tel Aviv.

The explosive device planted next to a tree in the bustling Yarkon Park in the north of the coastal metropolis caused no injuries when detonated.

Shortly thereafter, police closed off a section of Route 431, allowing masked security personnel to converge on a car sitting in traffic and arrest the suspects.

Despite initial reports to the contrary, no explosives were found in their vehicle.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) was involved in the investigation, suggesting authorities believe the bombing was an act of terrorism.

Hebrew-language media reported that the suspects are from the Palestinian village of Al-Eizariya (also known as Bethany) near Jerusalem, although they at times lived in the Tel Aviv suburb of Jaffa.

Both men hold Israeli citizenship, according to the reports.

The development unfolded as Israelis were preparing for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins Friday at sundown.

Image: Two Palestinians were arrested on a highway close to Ramla, east of Tel Aviv, Sept. 15, 2023. Photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90.

“If the U.S. isn’t demanding this, and the Israelis aren’t, what is to say the Jordanians should do anything?” said Jonathan Schanzer of FDD, referring to the mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria suicide-bombing.

Melissa Langsam Braunstein

(JNS)

The American Jewish Committee mentions Ahlam Tamimi twice on its website—in 2020 and in 2018. Neither the AJC’s nor its chief executive officer’s account on X (formerly Twitter) seems to have ever posted about the Jordanian national, who helped carry out the deadly terrorist attack in August 2001 at a popular Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem.

Yet 22 years after the attack one year into the Second Intifada that lasted until 2005, Ted Deutch, who became CEO of the nonprofit last October, sent a letter in mid-July to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the U.S. Department of Justice to “intensify its pursuit” of Tamimi’s extradition from Jordan, per Jewish Insider.

The AJC finds that “quiet diplomacy is often more effective in sensitive matters, but when time passes and it fails to produce results, other avenues must be taken,” Jason Isaacson, the nonprofit’s chief policy and political affairs officer, told JNS.

The sensitivity appears to relate less to Tamimi—for whom the U.S. State Department offers a reward of up to $5 million and whom the FBI names on its most wanted terrorist list—than to diplomatic relations with her home country.

“Israel is legitimately fearful of damaging its 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, even to the point of avoiding the subject of its ‘ally’ allowing her asylum, allowing her to celebrate the murder of innocent Jews and allowing her to propagandize for Hamas,” according to Charles Jacobs, co-founder and president of the Jewish Leadership Project.

Washington appears to share Jerusalem’s concerns about destabilizing Amman in any way—resulting in a frozen status quo—after Tamimi, who was sentenced to 16 life sentences in Israel, was freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange. She has since lived a celebrity’s life in Jordan.

Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that King Abdullah II of Jordan is “extremely sensitive to the sentiment of the Jordanian street, and even more sensitive since the Arab Spring.”

“There’s never been a serious challenge to the king, but things haven’t been as stable as the monarch would like, and economically, things have gone very poorly,” Schanzer said. “The optics of caving, so to speak, to the demands of the U.S. or Israel on Tamimi may not play well—may not play to the king’s favor.”

‘A travesty that requires resolution and justice’

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, told JNS that 17 lives were lost in the Sbarro suicide-bombing (one of the adult victims was pregnant). Another 130 were wounded, many maimed for life. Seven of those killed were children having a late lunch with their parents before the start of Shabbat.

“The fact that she is not being made to pay for her murderous crimes, and is allowed to live freely and hosted her own show on Hamas television, is a travesty that requires resolution and justice,” Rothstein said of Tamimi.

After AJC’s reported letter to the Justice Department, JNS sought comment from 45 Jewish organizations about whether or not Tamimi should be extradited. Three offered no comment, and 23 stated that they supported extradition. (The other 19 didn’t respond.)

Agudath Israel of America, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, CAMERA, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Zionist Organization of America told JNS that they have worked for Tamimi’s extradition for years.

The American Zionist Movement issued a call in July 2020 for Tamimi’s extradition. The Coalition for Jewish Values and 17 other organizations joined a letter urging the same that year.

Americans Against Antisemitism, the American Sephardi Federation, B’nai B’rith International, CASEPAC, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, the Democratic Majority for Israel, the Jewish Defense Fund, the Jewish United Fund, Religious Zionists of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition and StopAntisemitism also told JNS that they support extradition.

“The extradition of Tamimi to the United States for her role in these killings is more than long overdue,” Daniel Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith, told JNS. “Justice must be served—not least because in doing so, a strong message will be sent that those who carry out these acts cannot do so without a price to be paid.”

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told JNS that Tamimi is “an unrepentant butcher.”

“She expressed disappointment when early reports suggested three had been killed and ‘couldn’t help’ smiling as the number rose,” he said. “Far from regretting her actions, she has declared openly that she would do it again if given the chance.”

Rabbi Abba Cohen, vice president of government affairs and Washington director and counsel at Agudath Israel, pointed out that nearly half of Tamimi’s victims were children.

“The only regret she has, she has said, is that she hadn’t been able to kill more Jews,” he told JNS. “Such a criminal is richly deserving of standing trial and being punished for her horrific crime—for the sake of the many injured survivors of her heinous attack, of their families and of civilized society.”

One of the three Americans who was injured in the terrorist attacks “was left in a vegetative state for more than two decades before succumbing to her injuries,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told JNS. “Where is the justice?”

“There simply can be no peace without justice,” added Sarah Stern, founder and president of EMET.

‘A foremost priority’

Arnold and Frimet Roth have pursued justice for their daughter, Malki, who was 15 and one of three American citizens murdered in the attack orchestrated by Tamimi.

Arnold Roth told JNS that no one will ever get the State Department’s $5 million reward for helping to capture the mastermind of his daughter’s murder. Tamimi’s whereabouts have been widely known in Jordan, though no one has turned her in.

JNS sought comment on the extradition from the State Department, which referred questions to the Justice Department.

“This is a matter of particular importance to the Justice Department,” according to an official from the department who did not offer a name. “However, the department does not discuss specifics on extradition matters.”

Roth told JNS that Washington’s official position on the extradition has appeared to change. In October 2022, a senior State Department official wrote to him and his wife in the name of U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The official (whom Roth declined to name) told them that bringing Tamimi to U.S. justice “is a foremost priority for the United States.”

“What does that mean? And why, despite it being ‘foremost,’ do U.S. officials suppress all public mention of the case?” Roth asked.

‘Governing is always about priorities’

Extraditing Tamimi is much lower on the U.S. government’s priority list “than one would imagine or than it should be,” Schanzer, of FDD, told JNS. “It’s one of those cases that underscores one of the unfortunate realities in D.C.—that folks are principled until they have to make compromises or trade-offs.”

The Israeli government is focused on other challenges in working with Jordan, including the latter’s absence from the Negev Summit; smuggling across the Israeli-Jordanian border; and cooperation when it comes to water and natural gas, according to Schanzer.

“Governing is always about priorities,” he said. “The Israelis have put this permanently on the back burner. It’s deeply painful for the families.”

In accepting Tamimi upon her release in 2011, Jordan never agreed to have her serve additional time, so she has been able to live freely, according to Schanzer.

“From their perspective, they’re being asked to do something they don’t believe comports with their laws,” he said. “That’s deeply frustrating to anyone with a sense of justice,” but “if the U.S. isn’t demanding this and the Israelis aren’t, what is to say the Jordanians should do anything?”

Still, many Americans believe that Jordan should act. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sought to block funding to Jordan until it extradites Tamimi. In fact, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned Yael Lempert about Tamimi during her confirmation hearing to be U.S. ambassador to Jordan.

“If confirmed, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Ahlam Tamimi faces justice in the United States for her horrific crimes,” said Lempert, who was sworn in as ambassador to Jordan on Aug. 10.

Cruz asked Lempert if she would support all options, including withholding military and economic assistance from Jordan, until Tamimi is extradited. “I think our relationship with Jordan is multifaceted and extremely important. There are obviously some issues that we are not going to agree on,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that Ahlam Tamimi faces justice in the United States.”

Lempert is likely to be reminded of that promise.

Stephen M. Flatow, president of the Religious Zionists of America (RZA), fought the U.S. government for accountability for the 1995 terrorist attack that killed his daughter, Alisa. He believes that U.S. Jewish organizations must stand with the Roths and encourage the U.S. government to press Jordan on this matter, particularly given that Washington sends some $1.65 billion in aid to Jordan.

“We will be mobilizing RZA members nationwide to urge their members of Congress to take action on U.S. aid to Jordan, which, so far, has been hiding behind the United States’ refusal to demand Tamimi’s extradition,” Flatow said.

“Realizing that the threat to its American aid is real will cause Jordan to act,” he added. “We hope the American Jewish Committee will mobilize its members and supporters, too.”

Featured Image: The aftermath of the Sbarro pizzaria bombing at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, Aug. 9, 2001. Credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO.