High alert in Israel continues
The IDF has decided to maintain its state of high alert in the Gaza Strip area on Wednesday, pending an attack by the Islamic Jihad terror organisation.
The high alert was announced Tuesday morning after Israeli Special Forces arrested in Jenin Sheikh Bassam al-Saadi, the leader of the Islamic Jihad in the Samaria area, and after the terror organisation threatened to retaliate.
The Islamic Jihad initially thought that al-Saadi has been injured during the operation, and so Israel’s security system leaked photos of him smiling and in good health while in their custody.
However, after threatening an attack, it appears that the Islamic Jihad has obligated itself to strike against Israel and will do, possibly to a lower extent.
Responding to the threats, the IDF shut down all the roads surrounding the Gaza Strip, stopped all train traffic in the area, banned farmers who have fields adjacent to the border from attending to their crops, shut down the Zikim beach and blocked access to high points in the area, and stopped the entry of workers from the Gaza Strip into Israel. It continued these restrictions on Wednesday.
Summer camps in the area remained open, but with activities in the proximity of shelters. The city of Ashkelon, which has previously been the target of bombardments from Gaza, has raised the level of alert among its security and emergency services.
The IDF believes that the Islamic Jihad will try to retaliate to the arrest with sniper fire or anti-tank rockets.
This is the highest state of alert the area has experienced since Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021.
Sources in the Gaza Strip told TPS that it is widely believed that the Islamic Jihad’s response to the arrest will be in the Samaria region, in its strongholds in Shechem (Nablus) and Jenin.
The sources say that the leadership of the military wing of Hamas also prefers that the response be carried out in the territories of the Palestinian Authority and not from the territories of the Gaza Strip, in order to allow the phenomenon of the mixed terrorist groups that operate in Samaria, to grow stronger and move south towards Ramallah.
