Islamic Jihad threatens to attack Israel ‘after evening prayers’

An Israeli security official told TPS that a threat to attack Israel from the Gaza Strip is not credible, but a threat of an attack in Judea and Samaria is real.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

The Islamic Jihad terror organization is threatening to attack Israel from the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria if its demands to release imprisoned terrorists are not met, only weeks after the ending of Operation Breaking Dawn.

The terror organization published a threat to attack Israel on Thursday night after evening prayers if its demands to release Islamic Jihad terrorists, among them the leader of the organization in Jenin Bassam al-Sa’adi, whose arrest led to the latest round of warfare, are not met.

Al-Sa’adi’s detention was extended at a military court on Sunday and he will be indicted in the coming days. Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected on Sunday a request to release the administrative prisoner Khalil al-Awawada of the Islamic Jihad who is on a hunger strike and whose release is also listed by the terror organization.

The notice posted by the Islamic Jihad features the pictures of Al-Sa’adi and al-Awawada, as well as Islamic Jihad commanders killed by the IDF during Operation Breaking Dawn earlier this month, including Taysir al-Jabari, commander of the Islamic Jihad’s northern division in Gaza, and the commander of the southern division, Khaled Mansour.

An Israeli security official told TPS that a threat to attack Israel from the Gaza Strip is not credible, but a threat of an attack in Judea and Samaria is real.

Israeli analyst Yoni Ben Menachem, of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), reported Wednesday that there are “alarming signs of security escalation” in Judea and Samaria and Iran is pushing the Islamic Jihad to try and take over the Samaria area, especially around Jenin.

Over the past year, the Islamic Jihad organization, under Iran’s guidance, has been working to establish an independent territory that will not be subject to the power of the Palestinian Authority.

In the city of Jenin and in the neighboring villages, there are already several hundred armed terrorists, thousands of weapons, and large quantities of ammunition. The Islamic Jihad managed to push the PA completely out of the Jenin area and established a new military framework called the “Jenin Battalion” which also includes armed activists from other groups such as Fatah’s “al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades” and Hamas.

This framework began to spread towards the areas of Shechem (Nablus) and Tulkarm and carried out shooting attacks against IDF forces and Israeli civilians.