Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket towards Israel overnight Tuesday, hours after Israeli forces killed a wanted terrorist during a daytime raid in Jenin.
The rocket, which triggered sirens in the southern Israeli community of Nir Am, misfired and landed inside the Palestinian enclave, according to the military.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces eliminated in Jenin the Palestinian terrorist who murdered brothers Hallel Menachem and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv near the Arab village of Huwara on Feb. 26.
According to the military, soldiers had come under fire from within the house the terrorist was in, after surrounding it.
Palestinian officials identified the fatality as Abdel Fattah Hussein Kharousha, 49.
The Israel Defense Forces said that in concurrent operations in Nablus troops arrested two of Kharousha’s sons, who are suspected of involvement in the Feb. 26 attack.
“This was an exceptional intelligence and operational achievement. These operations are of immense value,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday night. “By your actions, you are sending a clear and sharp message to all who are thinking about murdering an Israeli citizen: We will settle accounts with you. [I] convey my deepest appreciation—and that of the entire people of Israel—to the soldiers, to the men and women of the security establishment.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price similarly backed the IDF operation, saying that Israel “has the legitimate right to defend its people and its territory against all forms of aggression, including, of course, those from terrorist groups.
“[We] have seen far too many vivid illustrations of the terrorist threat that Israel faces, including in recent days. We remain deeply concerned by the sharp rise in violence in [Judea and Samaria], and we continue to urge the parties to take immediate steps to prevent the further loss of life.”
The day after the Yanivs were killed, Palestinian terrorists murdered Israeli-American Elan Ganeles near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. A native of Connecticut, Ganeles had served in the IDF from July 2016 to August 2018. He was living in Manhattan and had traveled to the Jewish state to celebrate a friend’s wedding.
Earlier in February, a terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood claimed the lives of Yaakov Israel Paley, 6; his brother, Asher Menachem Paley, 8; and 20-year-old Alter Shlomo Lederman. Three days later, IDF Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed, 22, died of wounds sustained in a terrorist attack at a checkpoint to Shuafat in Jerusalem.
On Jan. 27, seven people were killed and several others were wounded in a terrorist shooting rampage at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.
