Hamas Thwarts Gaza Rocket Launch, Deploys Forces to Prevent Disturbances

Jerusalem, 3 July, 2023 (TPS) -- A Palestinian source in Gaza told the Tazpit Press Service that Hamas deployed its border guard forces to prevent disturbances along the border with Israel on Monday morning and that the terror group has already thwarted an attempt to launch a rocket at Israel. The move amidst a widespread Israeli counter-terror operation in the city of Jenin.

The source said the attempted launch was in the area of Beit Hanoun, in the northeast area of the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces is preparing for the possibility that Gaza terror groups will fire rockets and raised its level of alert along the Gaza border. According to Hebrew media reports, Israel also warned Gaza terror groups not to escalate the conflict.

The Eshkol Regional Council, which represents Israel’s northwest Negev communities adjacent to Gaza, said they have not received any special instructions from the IDF Homefront Command.

Israel launched a major counter-terror operation in the Palestinian city of Jenin, including the refugee camp, in the early hours of Monday morning. Fierce fighting is taking place inside Jenin and within its refugee camp.

The IDF struck a building in the UN-administered refugee camp which it said served as a joint war room for where the city’s terror groups coordinated their activities. The IDF said the building also “served as an observation post, a gathering place for armed terrorists before and after terror acts, a cache for munitions and bombs and a communications center.”

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari described the army’s activities as a “brigade-level raid” and said the military carried out drone strikes on wanted terrorists and on sites used to manufacture and store weapons. The IDF also released photos from a bomb-making factory in Jenin.

“We did not come to occupy the refugee camp. This is not an operation against the Palestinian Authority but against the terror groups in Jenin,” Hagari said.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, five Palestinians have been killed and 27 injured. It wasn’t clear how many of the casualties were combatants.

The IDF reported that one soldier was injured by shrapnel from a grenade thrown by another Israeli soldier.

A major counter-terror operation was widely anticipated by Israelis and Palestinians alike as Palestinian 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.