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The IDF has confirmed that Major Bar Pelach, the deputy commander of the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion, was killed last night during a firefight with Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank.
The incident began around 11:30 pm when the IDF observed two Palestinians approaching and then lying down behind the fence that separates Judea and Samaria from pre-1967 Israel.
Around 2:30 am as Israeli soldiers advanced toward the suspects in a flank position, the Palestinians opened fire on the approaching soldiers, killing Major Pelach before being neutralized when the IDF returned fire.
The two gunmen have been identified by Palestinian media as from the village of Kafr Dan in the Jenin area and that one served as an intelligence officer for the Palestinian Authority security forces.
Maj. Bar Pelach, the deputy commander of the Sayeret Nahal battalion, has been identified as the officer killed tonight pic.twitter.com/ho01T5Dfif
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) September 14, 2022
Yesterday’s gunfight comes amid rising tensions in the northern West Bank, as the IDF continues to conduct almost-daily raids into Palestinian areas as part of its counter-terror effort, Operation Break the Wave.
Many of these raids have taken place in Jenin and Nablus, the two largest hotbeds of Palestinian terrorism.
As part of Operation Break the Wave, Israeli security forces arrested seven Palestinians suspected of terrorism and confiscated a number of illegal weapons across the West Bank between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
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Speaking at a conference hosted by Reichman University in Herzliya, Major General Aharon Haliva, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence, said that he believes that were it not for Hezbollah holding Lebanon “hostage,” Beirut would have normalized relations with Jerusalem as part of the Abraham Accords.
Referencing recent threats against Israel by the Iran-backed terror group, Haliva also issued a direct warning to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, saying: “I hope for Nasrallah’s sake that he does not underestimate the Israeli response to [potential] actions. I remind Nasrallah that Israel’s power is very great and I’m not sure he wants to test it.”
Relations between Israel and its northern neighbor have been rocky for the past few months, with both sides taking part in heated American-led negotiations over the disputed Karish gas field that lies on the Mediterranean boundary between the two countries.
It was recently announced that the negotiations were going well and that a settlement would soon be forthcoming.
Hezbollah has taken advantage of the maritime dispute, threatening Israel if Lebanon’s demands are not met and sending four unarmed drones towards the gas field in July.
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Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad recently announced a monetary prize for any Palestinian who commits a shooting attack against Israelis and then uploads a video of the attack to the popular social media site TikTok.
According to Israeli media, security officials are concerned that the $200 reward announced by the two US-designated terror groups will incentivize Palestinians to commit shooting attacks against Israelis and the sharing of videos of these assaults will then inspire copycat attacks.
Tensions are already running high in Israel following a rise in Palestinian shooting attacks against Israeli targets, with fears raised as the Jewish holiday period approaches.
According to local media reports, Israeli security officials recently convened a meeting with Prime Minister Yair Lapid and presented him with “70 concrete warnings about imminent attacks during the holiday season.”
The Israeli Police will deploy a record-breaking 20,000 police officers over the holiday period — concentrated in the high-risk areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank — in an effort to counter the possibility of Palestinian terror attacks.
Since the beginning of this year, Israeli security forces have thwarted more than 240 “significant terror attacks,” including shootings, kidnappings and suicide bombings.
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For the first time in history, an Arab military head has arrived in Israel on a public visit.
Shortly after touching down in Tel Aviv, Lieutenant General Belkhir El-Farouk, inspector General of Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces, was greeted by an honor guard headed by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Aviv Kochavi.
Lieutenant General El-Farouk will be taking part in the International Operational Innovation Conference, which is hosted by the IDF and will feature delegations from 25 different countries.
As part of the Abraham Accords, Israel and Morocco normalized diplomatic relations in December 2020. Since then, the two countries have established economic, security and cultural ties.
In his official capacity as the head of the Israeli Army, Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi visited Morocco this past July.
Recommended Reading
- Hezbollah: Four Decades of Unprecedented State-Sponsored Terrorism (Yaakov Lappin, Jewish News Syndicate)
- The Haredi Women Not Afraid to Step Outside the Box — And Onto the Screen (Amy Spiro, Times of Israel)
- Insidious Propaganda at ‘The New York Times’ (Phyllis Chesler, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Israeli-US Research Uses Retina to Find Alzheimer’s (i24News)
- Why Didn’t the U.S. Save More Jews From the Nazis’ Clutches? (Stewart Ain, Ynetnews)
Featured Image: Saeed Qaq/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
