An Israeli Army spokesman justifies the use of a drone near Jenin and condemns settler attacks against Palestinians
June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Israeli Army has pointed this Friday to “an increase in terrorism” in the West Bank that focuses on attacks perpetrated by opening fire from moving vehicles, while justifying the use of a drone on Wednesday to kill three suspects in around Jenin and condemned the “horrible incidents” caused by Israeli settlers who attacked several Palestinian towns.
The spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Daniel Hagari pointed out during an event with the media, including Europa Press, that this escalation of the attacks in the West Bank is fueled by a flow of weapons there from various countries. , as well as “money” handed over by Iran and Palestinian armed groups operating in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Thus, he has stated that the incidents, which have left 25 Israelis dead in 2023, are carried out by “armed men who use cars on the main roads” for their attacks, including those that resulted in the death of Lucy Dee and her two daughters. –an attack perpetrated in April near the settlement of Hamra– and the four fatalities of the attack on Tuesday near the settlement of Eli.
“We have to be more focused on this threat,” acknowledged Hagari, who has argued that this “new threat” leads the Army to “different measures,” including the aforementioned use of a drone near Jenin against a vehicle in which they were traveling. three armed Palestinians –identified as two members of Islamic Jihad and one from the armed wing of Al Fatah–, in what was the first use of such devices in the West Bank since the end of the Second Intifada nearly two decades ago.
“In the fight against terrorism there are two rules,” he argued, while saying that “if there is prior intelligence information, it must be prevented from happening.” “We take the necessary measures and prevent terrorist activities from happening,” she said, before adding that the second option involves “pursuing the terrorists” after the attack, which “sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it takes longer.”
In this sense, he stressed that, in the case of the drone attack, the Israeli Army “had intelligence information that this squad of armed men was preparing to go and perhaps kill another family”, although he stated that in a At first, “they did not have sufficient data” to determine if the suspects were the occupants of the vehicle.
For this reason, it has reported that the drone followed the vehicle to the Jalamé crossing, where “they got out of the car and fired at a checkpoint.” “After that, we used the drone, a tactical device, to neutralize the threat,” he recounted, before confirming that the device was a Hermes. “We saw three armed people shooting from inside the vehicle and we neutralized them,” Hagari stressed.
In this way, he pointed out that the Army “will use things when there is a need, not just for the sake of using them”, before pointing out that “risk management” was taken into account before giving the order to attack, including an assessment that included avoiding a new operation in Jenin with the aim of avoiding “a new escalation in the area”. Thus, he has made reference to the incidents registered on Monday, when seven Palestinians -among them two minors- died and more than 90 were injured at the hands of the Army during an operation in the city.
The raid led to armed clashes, in which an explosive device went off by a passing Israeli military vehicle, prompting Israel to launch a “logistical operation” to evacuate trapped soldiers, during which an Apache military helicopter opened fire on “armed persons”, also the first time such an attack has been recorded since the Second Intifada.
Hagari has specified that this rise in insecurity derives in part from a greater flow of arms to the West Bank, mainly from Jordanian territory, although he has indicated that deliveries have also been registered from the Gaza Strip –through the border with Egypt — and even from within Israel. In addition, the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah and Iran “are trying” to increase arms deliveries to Palestinian groups to carry out attacks.
The Army spokesman has also denounced that Hezbollah has installed several tents on the Israeli side of the Blue Line -the border between the two countries- where there are “armed people” and has denounced that this act “goes against the International right”. “It is a provocative action”, he lamented, while assuring that the Israeli authorities have presented “all the evidence” to the United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon (UNIFIL).
“There has to be an application of the law. If not, we will not let Hezbollah be there,” he said. “We have asked UNIFIL to remove the tents. If the UN and Lebanon do nothing, we will not allow tents with Hezbollah armed people. We will try to do it peacefully, and I hope it will, but we will not allow them to stay there,” Hagari has highlighted.
CONDEMNS THE “NATIONALIST CRIMES” OF THE SETTLERS
In another order of things, he has reiterated his condemnation of “nationalist crimes” by settlers, after the recent attacks on cities in the West Bank, which have resulted in at least one Palestinian being killed and dozens injured. Thus, he has stressed that this type of incident “drag Palestinian civilians who are in no way in the terrorist mechanism towards an escalation.”
Hagari has acknowledged that the assault carried out on Wednesday by “around 200” settlers against the city of Turmus Aya after the funerals for the “terrible terrorist attack” in the vicinity of the Eli settlement was “a serious event” that the Army “should have avoid”. “We failed to prevent it,” he lamented, while acknowledging that the Army was aware that there could be riots after the funerals.
However, it has indicated that the IDF “did not have enough forces in the area” when the assault began, for which reason it later sent reinforcements to the area to try to contain the situation, already after the start of the burning of homes and vehicles by of the colonists. Thus, he explained that it was then that clashes with residents broke out, a reason that led the Police to shoot a suspect.
“It is something very serious,” Hagari stressed, stressing that the Army “will learn” in order to “prevent this type of event from repeating itself.” “These events are counterproductive. They lead the population unrelated to terrorism to an escalation and divert military forces used to guarantee highway safety and prevent terrorism to respond to this type of event,” she argued.
“It does not allow us to provide more security, rather the opposite,” he said, before insisting that these attacks by settlers “help an escalation that is trying to be avoided” and defending the need to “strengthen” the security forces. Palestinian security forces “to do more and be more active. “We need them to be more effective,” Hagari said, noting that the Palestinian authorities “are afraid to act” sometimes in places like Jenin.
Finally, he called for “containment” of the Palestinian population, especially considering that these areas are under the responsibility of the Israeli Army. “We failed this time, but we are doing everything possible to prevent these kinds of horrible incidents from taking place,” she pointed out, before adding that these attacks “go against Israel’s moral system and against the law.”
