The operation also netted 10 explosive devices and other weaponry.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Seventeen wanted terrorists were captured and transferred to security forces for further interrogation during overnight raids throughout Judea and Samaria in a brigade-level operation, the IDF announced Monday.
Soldiers, Border Police troops and Shabak intelligence forces worked together on the arrests. They also found and confiscated various military equipment and weapons, including 10 explosive devices in the Nur a-Shams refugee camp in northern Samaria that were neutralized. Palestinians threw explosives at the troops, who returned fire and registered several hits, according to the IDF report.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group that is financed directly by Iran posted a video online of a supposed IED device of theirs exploding next to an armored bulldozer in the Nur a-Shams camp.
In other villages, Palestinians threw rocks and fireworks at the Israeli forces, who responded either by firing in the air or using crowd-dispersal means to bring an end to the clashes.
No injuries were reported on the Israeli side.
Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested this month alone for their participation in terrorist activities, joining hundreds of others who have been captured since the beginning of the year in the IDF’s continuous ongoing anti-terror operations.
The IDF has had to contend not only with terrorists belonging to the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah movement, but also with Hamas and PIJ, which have gained overwhelming popularity in the PA-administered areas of Judea and Samaria, known as Areas A and B.
For example, nearly half of the residents of Jenin — where the IDF ran the two-day counterterrorism Operation Home and Garden earlier this month — say they support either Hamas or the PIJ.
This is a direct threat to the PA as well as to Israel, and the Authority has begun cracking down on these internal enemies in an effort to reassert control in an effort that has angered many Palestinians, who see the PA as an irretrievably corrupt “collaborator” with Israel.