Netanyahu touts ‘security cooperation’ with US during Jenin operation
Joel Gehrke
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U.S. and Israeli security ties are stronger than ever, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who touted the alliance as Israeli Defense Forces conduct a rare large-scale military operation in the West Bank.
“America has provided Israel with moral and political backing against those who would wipe us out, the only Jewish state,” Netanyahu said Monday. “Security cooperation has never been better; intelligence sharing has never been deeper.”
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Netanyahu offered that applause during an appearance at the U.S. Embassy’s Independence Day event, which coincided with an Israeli Defense Forces raid on a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin, which Israeli officials have described as “the terrorism hub” of West Bank. President Joe Biden has kept Netanyahu at arm’s length since the longtime leader’s return to power, but U.S. officials have affirmed “Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas” amid the Jenin operation.
“We are [placing] a new equation in front of terrorism all the time,” Netanyahu said at the embassy bash. “Our main principle is simple: Anyone who murders Israelis, anyone who wishes to murder us, belongs either in prison or the grave. Anyone who hurts us, anyone who sends terror against us, will be doomed.”
Israeli officials launched what they called a “brigade-level raid” early Monday morning to target the Jenin Brigades, a network of Palestinian fighters founded as an offshoot of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“I want to emphasize we don’t have a fight with Palestinians,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Monday. “Our fight is with the proxies of Iran in our region, which is mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
The group has been involved in multiple clashes with Israeli forces, including an incident late last month that saw the Palestinian fighters use a “pretty advanced” improvised explosive device to hit an IDF vehicle. Israeli officials reportedly were forced to deploy a helicopter gunship as part of an “extraction mission” to rescue the suddenly beleaguered ground forces.
“The scale of the IED is an issue. We are still looking into it,” IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told CNN last month. “It’s pretty unusual and dramatic. It will affect how we do business.”
That statement proved a portent of a raid described as the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank since 2006. Israeli officials have released photos that purportedly show “hundreds of explosive devices” discovered at various sites in Jenin, including a mosque.
“The soldiers also located and confiscated two-way radios and military equipment from the site,” the IDF said. “In addition, IDF soldiers located an explosives manufacturing facility that contained dozens of improvised explosive devices and a guidebook on how to make additional explosive devices.”
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have threatened to retaliate over the “barbaric aggression” by the IDF, which reportedly has spurred 3,000 Palestinians to evacuate.
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“The Israeli aggression and the occupation’s conduct are what will determine how the factions will respond,” the militants said in a joint statement. “We call on all Palestinian people, in all villages and towns in the Jenin area, to take up the struggle and teach the occupation a lesson.”
Israeli officials have refused to forecast the duration of the operation. “There are still many goals that Israel wants to achieve,” one security official told an Israeli media outlet.