Three Palestinian terror operatives, including a senior commander, were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday afternoon, the military announced, marking a rare airstrike in the territory.

The strike targeted Qais Bitawi, who, according to the Shin Bet security agency, was the head of Hamas’s activities in the Jenin refugee camp, widely seen as a hotbed of terrorist activity.

IDF troops and members of the police’s elite Yamam unit launched an operation to kill Bitawi, following information provided by the Shin Bet of his whereabouts.

After Bitawi and two of his accomplices were spotted exiting a car next to a structure in Jenin, the Israeli Air Force carried out a drone strike against them, killing the trio, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The decision to carry out the airstrike came after the three terror operatives were identified as armed, a military official said.

A short while later, troops of the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion located an M16 assault rifle inside the car, the military said.

Bitawi had acted to advance “significant terror activities and was involved in directing, financing and carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces,” the military and Shin Bet said in a joint statement, adding that he also “maintained ties with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas abroad.”

According to the military official, Bitawi took part in directing a July 2024 bombing attack along the West Bank security barrier, in which two Defense Ministry employees were wounded.

The operation to kill Bitawi came following an “extensive intelligence effort” led by the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Directorate, during which Israeli forces arrested and questioned dozens of accomplices who had been in contact with the terror commander, the official said.

In a statement, Hamas denounced the strike and said it “will be met only with further anger and........

© The Times of Israel