Last night, Maj. Bar Falah, 30, the deputy commander of the elite Nahal reconnaissance unit, was killed before dawn on Wednesday. Two infiltrators were spotted on security cameras more than two hours before the shooting, breaching the security barrier near the Palestinian village of Jalamah in Samaria. The soldiers arrived at the scene, surrounded the suspects, and initiated an arrest procedure. While trying to apprehend them, the terrorists, armed with a Carlo makeshift submachine gun and another semi-automatic weapon, opened fire, killing Falah. The terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire.
An armed drone was sent to the scene but was not used as it was not known at the time that the terrorists were armed.
#breaking: Major Bar Pelach HY”D of the Nahal Brigade is the officer that was killed in the Jalama Crossing attack this morning. He was 30 years old from Netanya. pic.twitter.com/HNyzIXZYiO
— Chaim • حاييم • חיים (@ChaimSmierc) September 14, 2022
The Palestinian gunmen were named by Palestinian media as Ahmed Abed and Abdul Rahman Abed, from the village of Kafr Dan near Jenin. Ahmed was an officer in the PA security services.
On Tuesday morning, a Defense Ministry engineering vehicle working along the security barrier in the same area came under gunfire. No injuries were reported in the attack, but a tractor was seriously damaged.30 bullet casings were found at the scene. A video from the shooting, apparently taken by the terrorists, was uploaded to the internet.
שעה אחרי פיגוע הירי בקו התפר: חוליית המחבלים מפרסמת את תיעוד הירי. בזירה נמצאו 30 תרמילים pic.twitter.com/JHSBrMGc3r
— רועי שרון Roy Sharon (@roysharon11) September 13, 2022
On Tuesday night, a 70-year-old Israeli woman was lightly hurt after her car came under a stone-throwing attack near the settlement of Revava. The woman was injured from grass shards and treated at the scene.
In a separate incident nearby just a short time later, a Palestinian youth was arrested with a knife at the Tapuah Junction in Samaria.
In raids during the predawn hours of Tuesday, troops arrested five wanted Palestinians, with violent incidents in some areas, the IDF said.
Maariv news reported that Israeli security forces have seen over 70 warnings of terror attacks in the past several days. The focus of most of these threats has been Jerusalem. A report on Kan News cited an unnamed security official as saying that there are “concrete warnings” that terror groups plan to incite violence in and around the Temple Mount ahead of the upcoming Jewish High Holidays.
Arab social media has been calling on Muslims to ascend the Temple Mount during the Jewish holidays.
Security officials announced on Tuesday that Jewish visits to the site will not be suspended.
The IDF launched Operation Breakwater in March, launching nightly raids focused on proactively preventing terrorist attacks in Israel. Focusing on Shechem (Nablus), Jenin, and other hotspots in northern Samaria, the IDF forces increasingly ran into informal “battalions” made up of gunmen armed with automatic weapons affiliated with terror organizations like Hamas and PIJ. At the same time, the IDF has been reinforcing soft spots in the anti-terrorist security barrier. More than 2,050 counterterrorism operations have been carried out, during which over 1,500 wanted individuals have been apprehended and hundreds of weapons seized. This operation has been coming under heavy fire from terrorists, indicative of a large number of weapons in the hands of the Palestinians.
The operation comes after deadly attacks killed 19 Israelis between March and May 2022. Chief of General Staff Aviv Kohavi claims the operation has prevented hundreds of attacks.
