Caroline Glick
JNS, June 21, 2023
“Following the massacre in Eli on Monday, U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides tweeted out a statement that indicated that for the Biden administration, there is no difference between the deliberate murder of Israeli civilians and the incidental death of Palestinians during a gunfight between Palestinian terrorists and IDF forces.”
On Tuesday, two Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas drove up to the gas station outside the town of Eli in the Benjamin District. Carrying M-16s, they boldly entered Hummus Eliyahu restaurant and opened fire on the diners. They killed four people, wounded four more, one critically, and exited the restaurant.
A father at the gas station with his children told his kids to lie on the floor of their car, drew his handgun and emptied it into one of the terrorists. The second escaped in a stolen car. Security forces located him hours later, 18 miles away in the Jordan Valley.
Before dawn on Sunday, Palestinian terrorists affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah faction, with Hamas and with Palestinian Islamic Jihad ambushed an IDF armored convoy in Jenin in northern Samaria as the soldiers were exiting the city after arresting two terrorists. The terrorists detonated a series of roadside bombs against the convoy, wounding five soldiers. They then proceeded to open fire on the force.
For the first time in 21 years the IDF deployed helicopter gunships in Samaria, to enable the evacuation of the wounded. It took the IDF 12 hours, under constant fire, to evacuate the five disabled armored vehicles. Two more soldiers were wounded during the operation. The Palestinians claimed they damaged one of the helicopters.
Last week, the Palestinians carried out a shooting attack by Tapuach Junction near Nablus, wounding four soldiers. Two more soldiers were wounded by a car ramming attack at a nearby junction. Terrorists in Jenin claimed last week that they had shot down an IDF drone.
Both the boldness of the attacks, their increased lethality and the growing sophistication of the weapons systems and military capabilities of Palestinian terrorists has surprised the public. On Sunday, Jenin looked more like Lebanon or Gaza than at any time in the past.
While Israel is ostensibly in control over the security situation in Judea and Samaria, there is a growing sense that it has lost control. Palestinian terror groups are expanding their capabilities and increasing their firepower, undeterred by Israel.
Clearly something has changed in the Palestinian operational calculus.
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