”They started to develop rockets, sel-made rockets like theyn use in Gaza. The IDF understood that if they are not going to go inside Jenin sooner rather than later it would become a new Gaza.”

‘’The Israeli army entered Jenin to prevent it becoming a new Gaza,’’ said Israeli renowned veteran journalist and commentator Ron Ben Yishai.

Israeli forces on Wednesday withdrew from Jenin and the IDF’s ‘Operation House and Garden’  ended. 12 Palestinian terrorists have reportedly been killed during the operation.  No civilians were hurt during the operation which happened in the city’s refugee camp where terrorists are very active.

Since early Monday morning thousands of IDF troops operated  against terrorist infrastructure inside Jenin, targeting several terrorist command and control centres in what is the largest offensive the IDF has undertaken in twenty years. Forces have confiscated over a thousand weapons, among them explosive devices, ammunition, guns, dozens of kilograms of chemical materials for making explosives, remotely operated weapons, and gas tanks. The weapons were located in hideouts, a mosque, pits concealed in civilian areas, operational situation rooms, and in vehicles.

‘’Jenin had become a quite elaborate terrorist industry where terrorist groups took advantage of the fact that the Palestinian Authority doesn’t control the city anymore,’’ remarked Ben-Yishai, who is writing for daily Yediot Aharonot and has covered several conflicts in the world,  during an online briefing for European journalists organized by Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) about the Israeli counter-terrorism operation.

During the briefing, Ruth Wasserman-Lande, a former Knesset member and expert of the Israel-Arab conflict, stressed that Iran is behind the development of terrorist groups in the West Bank, especially in Jenin and Nablus. ‘’The situation in the West Bank has become unbearable. The decision to send the troopks to Jenin was made after 28 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks since the beginning of the year,’’ she said.

She also noted the huge efforts by Iran to use its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups to create a multi-front against Israel. ‘’Iran is also deploying huge efforts to destabilize it’s neighbor, Jordan. ‘’It is a very fragile country whose stability is very important for the U.S., Israel and Europe,”  Wasserman-Lande added.

Ron Ben Yishai believes that the IDF has capabilities to face all these threats and that the Jenin operation will not trigger a new intifada. ‘’Most of the West Bank Palestinians do not join the terrorists of Hamas or PIJ and will continue to attend to their activity and business as usual while the terrorists will continue to do the same, namely to serve as an instrument of Iran’s attempts to destabilize the region”.’’A Lebanization, whose weakest link would be Jordan,’’ in the words of Ruth Wasserman-Lande.