IDF Investigates Photo Of Paratrooper Brigade Mimicking Terrorists In Jenin During Operation

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During Operation Home and Garden (Bayit V’Gan) in Jenin, IDF soldiers from the Paratrooper Brigade were photographed together under the arch at the entrance to the city’s refugee camp, according to a Ynet report. The photo of the soldiers was inspired by a similar photo taken by Palestinian terrorists just a few weeks earlier. The terrorists had captioned their photograph with the words “You’re not coming in here.”

The army has launched an investigation into the taking of the photo, due to the risk the soldiers were exposed to. As part of the investigation, the IDF will probe which officers approved allowing the group of soldiers to gather together and take a photo in hostile territory in the midst of combat and out of the operational context.

Palestinian eyewitnesses to the picture claimed that the IDF soldiers positioned several military defensive tools behind them on Tuesday, the day the picture was taken, in order to protect themselves so that they could snap the photo. The eyewitnesses also claimed that the photo was taken during a brief lull in the fighting, when armed terrorists in Jenin barricaded themselves in the center of the refugee camp.

The withdrawal of all security forces from the refugee camp and the city of Jenin was completed by Wednesday morning at 2 a.m., marking the official conclusion of the operation. According to the IDF, at least 18 terrorists were killed during the operation. In the coming days, the IDF will maintain open attack cells (for aerial strikes) in order to be prepared for any contingency.

During the course of the two-day operation, security forces seized thousands of weapons in the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Jenin, including explosives, ammunition, firearms and explosives laboratories.

The IDF, Shin Bet and the Border Police reported that “over 300 suspects were investigated, and 30 of them were arrested. The forces located and destroyed 14 safehouses and war rooms used for terrorism, six explosives laboratories containing over 300 explosive devices, materials for manufacturing explosives, and additional ammunition.”

The statement continued: “Ten IEDs were seized, along with 24 M16 rifles, eight handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in terrorist funds were confiscated, along with dozens of kilograms of chemical substances for bomb-making. Six underground tunnels and two smuggling tunnels containing large amounts of weapons were also discovered.”
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Sgt. Major David Yehuda Yitzhak, 23, from Beit El, was killed during the operation. The soldier from the Egoz unit received emergency treatment on the ground and was airlifted to HaEmek Medical Center in Afula, where he was declared dead. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated, including the possibility of a friendly-fire mishap.