Jenin: Operation Home And Garden
Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzchak
The tragic death of first sergeant David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23, just a week before his release from the army, came on the last hours of the Israel Army’s withdrawal from the West Bank city of Jenin where over 1,000 IDF troops and Shin Bet (Israel’s FBI) forces had staged a two-day raid into that city to impede the increasing wave of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens. Sgt. Yitzchak was killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and terrorists in the Jenin refugee camp.
The July 3, 2023 incursion into Jenin, labeled Operation Home and Garden, came after several months of planning. Jenin has been a hotbed of terrorist activity and lately has become, according to government officials, a ‘city of refuge’ for terrorists. Observers said that Jenin and the surrounding area was becoming another Gaza, a Palestinian city on Israel’s southern border controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas. Military correspondent Avi Issacharoff writing in the Ynetnews, said you could call the city “Iran, Jenin Branch.”
According to AP, Israel saw over 50 attacks launched from Jenin over the past year. In June, four Israelis were killed by two shooters, one a 26-year old pro-Hamas student, at a West Bank gas station. Later in June, seven Israeli soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb as they approached Jenin to arrest a terrorist suspect. A gun battle ensured injuring nearly 100 Palestinians. The army used Apache attack helicopters to help extricate the trapped soldiers.
According to the Israeli Army, “Over the past year, Israel has seen an uprise of terrorist attacks, which has led to the death of 45 Israeli civilians, foreigners and security personnel.”
IDF enters Jenin
According to reports, Iran funds many of the terrorist groups who operate in Jenin and the surrounding area. Jenin is a city of approximately 53,000 Palestinians, and abuts the Jenin refugee camp of another 10,000. According to analysts, the Palestinian Authority has lost control of Jenin. Hamas and Hezbollah and other groups supported by Iran, like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have taken over the city, and the surrounding area that encompasses many villages. The cumulative population of the region is about 350,000 according to a Palestinian census.
According to Issacharoff, Iran sees that attacking Israel from the West Bank more effective than attacking Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. International attacks, said Issacharoff, get better headlines but don’t disturb the Israelis as much as attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and inside Israel. According to Issacharoff, the Jenin area has no real leader since the Palestinian Authority lost control. Other observers say that either the Palestinian Authority has to reassert control in Jenin or Israel has to.
Israel used airborne attacks for the first time in twenty years to attack terrorist positions as the IDF (Israel Defense Force) moved into the city. The army, led by Shin Bet operatives who reportedly knew every corner and cubbyhole in Jenin, had a list of twenty targets. By 18:00 on July 3rd the army had destroyed three explosive labs, 300 charges, rifles and ammunition, an improvised rocket and even a submarine shaft. All were buried in a secret tunnel beneath a Mosque. 100 suspects were arrested, some released, others transferred to another location. The expectation is those others will be interrogated to reveal information about the terrorists and their plans.
The Palestinian Authority reported that 10 Palestinians had been killed and 80 wounded, 17 in critical condition, during the day. PA leader Abu Mazen said he was cutting security coordination with Israel in protest over the Jenin operation.
Reportedly, the IDF did not going house to house but exercised extreme caution to avoid Israeli and civilian casualties. According to Kan Channel 1 TV, the goal was to go in, perform surgical strikes, and withdraw quickly. Experts said they didn’t expect Operation Home and Garden to turn Jenin into a peaceful Monte Carlo overnight, but rather act as a warning that Israel would do what was necessary to protect Israeli citizens.
Giora Iland, former head of Israel’s military intelligence, said on Channel 13TV news that the army had to get in and get out before something untoward happened, “…like God forbid, a child was killed.” And he worried that the fighting could get out of hand should Hamas and Hezbollah begin firing rockets. Iland said unless the IDF moved quickly the incursion could trigger a war.
Channel 13tv Arab Affairs reporter Zvi Yehezkeli said that Jenin had become a city of refuge for terrorists, “a little Gaza or Lebanon.”
Media reported that thousands of Jenin residents fled the city during the fighting. At the same time, over 100,000 Palestinians entered Israel the same day to work. On the second day of the operation Israel pushed into the Jenin Refugee Camp where the hard-core terrorists had reportedly fled. Israeli troops withdrew at 02:00 am after 44 hours. Sgt Yitzchaki was killed in the one of the last exchanges of fire.By the end of the operation, media reports that 120 Palestinians had been arrested and 12 killed.
TERRORISM
Pick-up truck used in car ramming
Later that Tuesday in the Tel Aviv’s toney suburb of Neve Afeqa, a Palestinian terrorist drove a pickup truck at high speed into a crowd on Pinchas Rosen street then exited the truck with a knife and attacked the crowd leaving 9 injured, three seriously. He was shot and killed by a passerby who had his personal weapon with him. The terrorist was identified as Abed Aluhov Haliel, 20, from the Hebron region.
Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir
On Thursday, Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir,22, was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim. The gunman, Ahmed Yassin Ghaidan, was later stopped at a checkpoint where he opened fire at soldiers who “neutralized” him. Ghaidan had no prior record of security offenses. Troops searched the area for other terrorists. Finance Minister Bezalel Shmotritch is a resident of Kedumim. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said the shooting was in response to the IDF operation in Jenin earlier in the week.
According to the Times of Israel, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 25 people, including Thursday’s shooting. The report also said that 147 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that time, most of them during clashes with security forces or while carrying out attacks, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances
PROTESTS
Protesters block Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv
On July 5, 2023 tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demonstrating against the resignation of Tel Aviv Police Chief Ami Eshed who had been fired in March by National Security Minister Ben Gvir for being “too soft” on the protesters. Then the Attorney General said the firing was illegal and Eshed was returned to his post. However, Ben Gvir, an ultra-nationalist who has pushed for severe reaction against the protesters, pressured police chief Shabtai until the latter gave in and reassigned Eshed to a post running a teaching facility for new recruits. Eshed, a thirty-year veteran of the police, took this as a demotion and yesterday held a press conference and resigned publicly.
At the press conference Wednesday night Eshed said he “could have cleared Ayalon [Highway] within minutes at the terrible cost of cracking heads and breaking bones, at the cost of breaking the pact between police and the citizenry…for the first time in my three decades of service I was met with the bizarre reality in which calm and order were not the desired goal, but rather the opposite was the case.”
Eshed added that a “well-oiled social media campaign was launched against him that created such hatred his life was threatened. He said the threats did not dissuade him but “…at all times I saw before me one roadmap, one compass; checks and balances, the Israeli law and the rules of morality and justice.” He said he was paying a terrible personal cost for trying to prevent civil war.
In response, Ben Gvir held his own press conference and said that Eshed had “surrendered to the left.” Press reports reminded the public that Ben Gvir had himself been arrested many times for disturbing the peace when protesting against different governments whose decisions he felt were too “leftists.” Opposition leader Benny Gantz called for Ben Gvir’s removal from a position he wasn’t suited to hold.
Following Eshed’s press conference demonstrators poured into the streets in 40 locations around the country. Tel Aviv’s Ayalon expressway, the city’s main thoroughfare, was blocked from 20:00 until after midnight. Police showed restraint as protesters lit bonfires and chanted “Democracy.” Eventually mounted police and water canons were brought in to drive the protesters off the expressway.
By midnight the crowds had dwindled but not before nearly two dozen people were arrested. Most were released during the night. A few people were injured by the forceful spray of the water canon, including one 65-
Water canon at protest in Tel Aviv
year old former pilot who may lose the sight in one eye. At one point a young driver lost patience and tried to drive through the crowd, lightly injuring one demonstrator. The car was attacked, the windows broken and the driver arrested, but later released. The injured demonstrator did not press charges.
One of the protesters was a former security officer in his sixties. said “We’re going to face a coup by a group of extremists who took over Israel and are bringing anarchy.”
Earlier in the day the Knesset had passed the first of three readings of a bill to strip the Israel Bar Association of any power. As of now the head of the bar association sits on a panel that choses Israel’s judges. The candidate who was elected head of the bar association was pro-opposition and against Judicial Reforms. The new law, if it is passed on its third reading, would see him shoved off the judicial committee allowing the pro-overhaul proponents a free hand to pack the courts. This move was more gasoline added to the fire of the anti-Judicial Overhaul movement.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, a massive demonstration was held at Ben Gurion Airport to protest the Judicial Overhaul plans. Thousands of demonstrators turned out and blocked the main roads leading to the airport. Police were called in to clear the demonstrators.
Prime Minister Netanyahu had said last week that he would not go forward with those parts of the Judicial Reforms that would give the Knesset power to override the High Courts decision. But, this week he said he had reversed his position and would support an override bill. Mediation efforts between the two sides has stopped each blaming the other for sabotaging the talks held at the President’s Residence.
Justice Minister Levine and Judicial Committee chair Rothman have stated they will not give up on the push for Judicial Overhaul. Rothman has not yet called for an election to fill the vacant seat on the judicial panel that choses judges since the last election saw a pro-opposition candidate, the head of the Israel Bar Association, elected. Analysts say he will not convene the judicial panel until he can dispose of the head of the bar association and replace him with a pro Judicial Reform candidate.
One protester said there is no option other than protests to stop the Judicial Reforms. Former Minister of Defense Moshe “Bougie” Ayalon said that should anyone be killed in the protests the guilt would be on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s head.
On the other side, right wing supporters of the protest claim that the protesters supporting the opposition parties are simply taking to the streets angry at having lost the election. However, one of the protesters, also ex-security service, said, the process of Judicial Overhaul reminded him of countries where extremists comer to power democratically.”
In a surprise move, protests continued on Thursday night across the country. Roads were blocked including the main Coastal Road from Tel Aviv to Haifa.Violence broke out between police and demonstrators in front of Justice Minister Levine’s apartment building in Modiin. Other protesters demonstrated in front of government ministers’ homes around the country.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak appeared on TV and called on army reservists not to participate in the anti-democratic government. Opposition leader Benny Gantz also appeared on television Thursday night and called called on Netanyahu to come back to the negotiating table. Analysts say negotiations may be the only way to stop Israel from sliding into a civil war.
Meanwhile, Protest leaders have called for an unprecedented demonstration on Tuesday. Some observers ask if Israel isn’t presenting a weak image to Israel’s enemies who could use the situation to their advantage.
TRIAL
Arnon Milchen on the way to testify
In the on-going trial of PM Netanyahu on case 1000, one of the three he has been indicted on for bribery, breach of public trust, and fraud, prosecution witness Israeli billionaire Arnon Milchen, a successful Hollywood producer and businessman, gave testimony via video conferencing over a ten day period from a make-shift courtroom in the Old Ship Hotel in Brighton, England, to a courtroom in Jerusalem. Milchen has an estate in Brighton.
Judges accepted the fact Milchen was too ill to make the journey to testify in Jerusalem so a hall was rented in the Brighton hotel. TV images of the elderly Milchen hobbling up the stairs and limping down the corridor to give testimony in a hot stuffy hall with no air-conditioning were a daily feature. Milchen was upbeat and smiling answering reporters questions.
However, a few issues came up that upset the prosecution. One, Sarah Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s wife, was allowed into the small hall and sat opposite Milchen while he gave testimony. Mrs. Netanyahu was given clear instructions not to approach Milchen or try to influence his testimony, but at one point she greeted him outside the hall and gave him a kiss on the cheek. At another point the prosecution protested she was making hand and facial gestures at Milchen while he testified. Milchen later complained that Mrs. Netanyahu was disturbing him.
Milchen testified that he’d been providing the Netanyahus with champagne and the PM with cigars, and even expensive gifts like diamonds and coats to the PM’s wife, for years. Netanyahu is suspected of helping Milchen renew a 10-year visa to the USA and also help in Milchen’s various business dealings in Israel. In his interview with the police he said he found the process of gift giving ‘disgusting.’
However, when testifying on the video conference from Brighton he denied having said that. He also recanted other damaging statements he’d told the police.
Kidnapping
Elizabeth Tsurkov
According to the Israel Prime Minister’s office, Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, an Israeli Middle East analyst who also holds Russian citizenship, was kidnapped several months ago in Iraq, while on a research project, by a radical Shiite militia in Iraq. The PMO said she is apparently being held by Kataeb Hezbollah, a paramilitary group backed by Iran.
Channel 1 Kan TV reported that Tsurkov was kidnapped from her rented apartment along with another occupant. The USA is involved and apparently there are negotiations for Tsurkov’s release in exchange for a monetary payment.
Crime Wave
Arab Israeli deaths from the on-going gang war has reached nearly 130. Another killing took place when Walid Natur. 54, was killed while sitting in car, reportedly on way to a mosque in Qalansawe. Reportedly, Natur was not known to the police and led a normal law-abiding life. In Haifa, Yevgeny Stepanov, known to the police, was gunned down in broad daylight on the street.