World City of Terror
Jenin, on the West Bank, is ground zero for a simmering Third Intifada.
I BY SAMUEL M. KATZ
srael’s special forces own the night. They operate in the black of darkness, where speed and
stealth enable them to emerge out of the shadows undetected to strike with- out warning. But on the morning of Jan. 26,
2023, the antiterrorist units swept into the northern West Bank city of Jenin in the full light of day. Intelligence had identified a Pal-
estinian terror cell, a “ticking bomb,” about to embark on an attack against civilians in Israel. There wasn’t time to wait for night. The commandos pushed their way
inside the city toward its teeming refugee camp and a building where the armed men were preparing their operation. Gunfire erupted, and a fierce battle
ensued.
Palestinian gunmen rushed to join the fray. By the time the shooting
stopped, eight terrorists were dead, and several were taken into custody. A 60-year-old woman was killed in
the crossfire when she looked out her window to watch. The next day, a Palestinian terror-
ist opened fire on a synagogue in Jeru- salem, killing seven worshippers. A deadly cycle of bloodshed, one
not seen for 18 years, had erupted. The slow-burning fuse of a feared
Third Intifada had been lit, and there was no question that Jenin is its ground zero. As a senior defense correspondent
for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aha- ronot commented: “With all the pin- point operations, with all the pressure, Jenin is a tremendous headache for Israel’s security services.” Jenin has been a hotbed of terror-
ism for years. The city of 50,000 is under Pales-
tinian Authority civil administration, but that has not stopped the various factions from using it as a springboard
WAR ZONE A cloud of smoke hovers over the Jenin home of a Palestinian terrorist destroyed by Israeli forces on Jan. 2. The city has become a hotbed of unrest.
Jenin
for attacking Israel. The major Palestinian groups —
Fatah, Hamas, and various popular fronts — are all well-represented there, but it is the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and its new Jenin Brigades that really run the city. The PIJ is controlled by Syria, but is
financed and influenced by the Shiite mullahs in Iran. Some of the deadliest suicide bomb-
ings of the Second Intifada, from 2000 to 2005, originated in Jenin, includ- ing strikes against crowded buses and the bombing of a restaurant in Haifa that killed 21 people, including four children. Jenin was a war zone during the
years of violence, as Israeli forces retook the city — and the cities of the West Bank — following the March 2002 Passover massacre. The terrorists who fought in Jenin
during the intifada are either dead, on the run, or in prison. The Palestinian Authority adminis-
tration of President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 19th year of a “four-year term,” is ineffective and corrupt. After failed attempts to boycott,
divest, and sanction the Jewish state, Palestinian aspirations are no closer to being realized.
36 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2023
WAR ZONE©REUTERS / MAP/PETERHERMESFURIAN©ISTOCK
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