IDF Fighting Newly Created Terrorists of Hamas, the Lions' Den

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Hamas fighters wear Lions' Den insignias in Gaza parade. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

This past spring of 2022, the IDF launched a major anti-terror offensive mostly focused on the northern West Bank to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that have left 29 people in Israel and the West Bank dead since the start of the year.  Last year, the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate said that the army had identified "Iranian fingerprints also in the Palestinian arena.  

The operation has netted more than 2,000 arrests in near-nightly raids, but has also left over 130 Palestinians dead, many of them — but not all — while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces.                      

On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, George Washington's birthday and 1st day of the month of Adar, hundreds of IDF troops entered the Old City of Nablus (Shechem) in an important raid in order to arrest 3 terrorists.  That seems strange that so many would go into a city to arrest only 3 people, but they felt it necessary.  The terrorists were suspected in participating in shooting attacks against the IDF. They were members of the Lion Den Terrorist group.  The Lions' Den (Arabic: عرين الأسود, romanized: ʿArīn al-ʾUsud) is an independentist armed Palestinian group operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The group emerged in August 2022, following the killing by Israeli forces of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a prominent militant from Nablus, nicknamed The Lion of Nablus.

Lions’ Den call on Palestinians to engage in ‘Battle’ against Israeli Forces.  That's why the IDF went in with many men.  Nablus has a population as of 2017 of 156,906, and there were probably more last year.  It's a city taken over by terrorists.  

The troops came under attack and then returned fire.  The wanted 3 terrorists were killed along with at least 8 other Palestinians.  Over 100 Palestinians were reportedly wounded.  No IDF casualties were reported.  

Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Jordan issued statements condemning the raid.  The US State Department expressed concern while recognizing Israel's security needs.  

Smoke from fires fills the air as Palestinians clash with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday.   Israeli Security Agency and Border Police Special Forces had approached the house where they believed the suspects were located and told them to surrender, he said. “They didn’t surrender, they confined themselves into the house and opened extensive fire on our forces,” he said. One of the suspects tried to leave the house and was shot, he said, while the other two continued exchanging fire with the Israelis.

Thousands of Palestinian demonstrators held marches late last night, including in east Jerusalem, in protest over the raid. 

What people don't understand, is this is war.  Israel had already tangled with the terrorists, The Lion Den, last year.  They felt that sending 3 IDF into the city was sending them to their death.  They would have been attacked and killed as the odds were against them. So this time, they entered prepared to defend themselves.  

In promised retaliation on the next day, Thursday, terrorists in Gaza launched 6 rockets at Israel.  The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 5 of the rockets and one fell in open fields.  

The IDF then responded with strikes against Hamas military targets in Gaza.                            

A previous raid on Nablus in 2014:  IDF soldiers conducted an extensive operation last night, uncovering hundreds of weapons and explosives in Nablus. The forces arrested over 40 terrorist suspects and seized several Palestinian weapons caches. The mission continued Operation Brother’s Keeper, Israel’s extensive effort to find three Israeli teens kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.  Operation Brother's Keeper (in Hebrew: “מבצע שובו אחים” “Mivtsa Shuvu Achim”) was launched following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers: Eyal Yifrach (19), Gilad Shaar (16), and Naftali Fraenkel (16) by Hamas terrorists in June 2014.

Belgium has a neighborhood that has not been police-friendly.    Israel probably doesn't want  that to happen in their own country.  The latest events are also reinforcing outsiders’ suspicions of Molenbeek as “the jihadi capital of Europe,” or something similar to how Los Angeles viewed Little Tokyo in 1941: a den of dangerous outsiders nestled in the heart of a great and imperiled city.  Molenbeek isn’t a suburb, unlike the teeming banlieues that are home to many Paris immigrant communities. It sits in the heart of Brussels, across a canal from a trendy neighborhood of bars and cafes. A large number of its residents are not newcomers, but native Belgians, many of Moroccan descent, often wearing veils or other types of clothing.  

Resource:

Israel AM

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/lions-den-call-on-palestinians-to-engage-in-battle-against-israeli-forces/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-troops-come-under-fire-in-nablus-16-palestinians-arrested-in-overnight-raids/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/palestine-population

https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-brussels-molenbeek-20160323-story.html