WATCH: IDF blows up terrorists in Jenin area

With Shin Bet assistance, the IDF targeted and eliminated a group of terrorists in the Qabatiya area in the Jenin governate on Friday, which were set to commit a terror attack in the immediate future.

Watch (Source: IDF Spokesperson):

The IDF said that the anti-terror operation in the Jenin area is continuing. So far, defense forces have eliminated 15 terrorists, arrested more than 30 suspects, and confiscated lots of weapons, including five pistols, three firearms, and two improvised RPGs.

The arrested suspects and confiscated weapons were then delivered to be further handled by security forces.

In response to a parliamentary question in the Knesset, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the Jenin operation is meant to be a model for similar operations throughout Judea and Samaria.

He also said that the IDF and the government had learned their lesson in the fight against terror and that the old policy of brief raids to "mow the grass" and cut down terrorist buildup without eliminating it is over. Now, he said, the aim of such operations is to extirpate the terrorist threat entirely.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation in Jenin, entitled Iron Wall, was part and parcel of an effort to attack the Iranian axis wherever it presents itself - in Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or Yemen.

The Palestinian Authority had previously clashed with Hamas units in the Jenin area, who identify as the Jenin Brigade or Battalion, suffering casualties before the latter decided to unilaterally declare a truce "from a position of strength."

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in an interview following the signing of the hostage deal that the deal was bad in part because the constituency he represented - settlers living in Judea and Samaria - would be the first to be hurt by the release of hundreds of terrorists into the area in exchange for the hostages.