Operation Home & Garden has ended. After 48 hours of fighting in the Jenin refugee camp and in the city itself, all IDF forces left the city and refugee camp tonight (Wednesday, 2:00 A.M.).
For two days, IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police forces conducted a long list of activities, including arrests, interrogations, seizure of weapons, exposure of laboratories for manufacturing IEDs and other weapons, and explosives laboratories.
Operation Home and Garden: Exchange of Fire in Jenin
During the operation, the IDF revealed that the terrorists used the mosque as a base for terrorist activity, thereby endangering the worshippers by cynically using the place of worship. In the mosque where the armed terrorists barricaded themselves, IDF forces, based on information from the Shin Bet, located five explosive laboratories, more than 5 IEDs, and two underground weapons shafts hidden on the lower floor, under the prayer plaza.
In addition, for the first time in decades, the Israeli Air Force attacked Palestinian cities in Judea and Samaria, including the use of drones and precision munitions to minimize harm to innocent civilians.
IDF activity in the Jenin refugee camp, photo: AP
During the operational activity, as the forces began to leave the camp, a regular IDF soldier, Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzhak of the Egoz unit, a 23-year-old resident of Beit El, was killed. His funeral will be held today at 16 p.m. at the Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem.
IDF detonates IED hidden in sewage in Jenin // IDF Spokesperson
In interviews on Wednesday morning, IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said: "This was fighting in a very complex area, in the heart of the Jenin refugee camp. We lost a fighter, alongside the successful operation - we paid a heavy price. All our forces are outside the camp. We arrested more than 300 suspects, and it is clear that there are several more who fled and chose not to fight. When they return, we'll take care of them."
Hamas "woke up" at the last minute
Tonight, at around 1:30 A.M., the Hamas terrorist organization entered the fray with rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. Five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at the city of Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no casualties and the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defense system. An unexploded rocket hit a house in the city of Sderot, damaging the building while the family was in the protected area.
Sderot reported this morning that another rocket was intercepted in foreign currency at night and was located this morning in the yard of a house in a residential neighborhood in Sderot. The yard was damaged, with no injuries to the body.
Remains of a rocket that fell in the yard of a house in Sderot at the end of Operation Bayit Vagan, photo: Sderot Municipality
In response, the Israeli Air Force attacked an underground site for the manufacture of weapons and a site for the manufacture of rocket raw materials belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
As far as the IDF is concerned, the bottom line is that this was an operation that met its predefined objectives. Chief among them is a focused effort to thwart the terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin area, including damaging the infrastructure of the terrorist factions in the refugee camp, which was established and maintained for years, and expanding the freedom of action of the forces on the ground.
In addition to the period of high tension in recent weeks in the Judea and Samaria area, since 2022, more than 50 terrorists have left the Jenin area for murderous attacks in Israeli territory. The terrorists are supported by funds and weapons transferred by Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Summarizing the focused, short and effective operation, the IDF also notes that routine activity at the land crossings in the West Bank was maintained at all times, with tens of thousands of workers entering Israel to work.
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