The mosque in the Jenin Refugee Camp where Arab terrorists had barricaded themselves contained a terror tunnel leading to a nearby kindergarten, the Israeli Defense Forces announced on Tuesday.
מצורפת אינפוגרפיקה ותצלום אווירי של תוואי שטח המסגד בו פירים תת קרקעיים ואמצעי לחימה: pic.twitter.com/LG9kw0VnQD
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Soldiers working with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) in the refugee camp’s al-Ansar mosque using technological tools discovered the tunnel, traced its route and neutralized it. A map released by the army indicated one tunnel opening into an adjacent kindergarten.
An IDF Lt. Col. involved in the mission identified as M. said that the “The excavations carried out in the mosque turned it into a fortified target.”
On Monday, the IDF released photos of tunnels with weapons, explosives and military gear found in the mosque.
Israeli forces operating in the refugee camp since Monday morning have uncovered bomb-making laboratories, a home-made rocket launcher, explosives, weapons, and military gear.
The Israel Defense Forces said its forces killed 10 terrorists, adding that “all the dead were involved in combat,” adding that 120 wanted terror suspects have been arrested since Monday morning. The IDF is still searching for 350 terrorists in Jenin, of which 160 the IDF believes are still in the refugee camp.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that water and electricity in the camp was disrupted by fighting and that the army’s liaison to the PA was working to repair the damage in coordination with the Palestinian Authority.
“This happened mainly because of where we damaged roads, where there were hidden explosives,” Hagari said.
Some 3,000 of the camp’s 18,000 residents fled the camp on Monday. Those Arabs were sheltering in local homes and schools.
Established in 1953, the UN-administered camp is often referred to by Arabs as the “Martyr’s Capital.” Between 2000-2003, during the Second Intifada, at least 28 Arab suicide bombers came from the Jenin camp.
The incursion was widely anticipated by Israelis and Arabs alike as Arab terror mounted in northern Samaria. Since the beginning of 2023, 28 people have been killed in terror attacks. The Palestinian Authority has little influence in northern Samaria.
In mid-June, an unusually large bomb buried beneath a road injuring seven soldiers was followed by the launch of the first rocket from Jenin. The IDF carried out a targeted assassination of three terrorists in Samaria with an aerial drone, a tactic not seen in Judea and Samaria in 20 years.
