With drone strike, IDF changes West Bank rules in response to emboldened terrorism

The military’s use of airpower in the West Bank twice this week, after refraining for two decades, indicates Israel is looking to change the rules of the game when it comes to fighting Palestinian terror. This appears to have come after Palestinian armed groups changed the rules first, by ramping up terror attacks and more heavily resisting Israeli operations.

The northern West Bank, and especially the city of Jenin and its environs, have long been considered by the Israel Defense Forces hotbeds of terrorism, highlighted by a string of attacks in early 2022 of which many were carried out by residents of the area. Several of Israel’s targeted airstrikes in the West Bank during the Second Palestinian Intifada in the early 2000s also occurred in Jenin, as did one major battle during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.

While Jenin has never been considered totally off-limits for Israeli military raids, the IDF has seen more significant resistance by Palestinian gunmen in the city over the years, with much heavier gunfire compared to other West Bank cities, especially in recent months. This became all the more apparent during an IDF raid on Monday when a large roadside bomb was detonated near a convoy of military vehicles.

The explosive device heavily damaged a Panther armored personnel carrier (APC) and caused seven soldiers light-to-moderate injuries. Gunmen affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the dominant terror group in Jenin, opened fire at the disabled vehicle as the army worked to evacuate the wounded IDF soldiers to hospitals. Seven Palestinians were killed and nearly 100 were wounded in subsequent clashes.

Such explosive devices have not been an unusual sight in the West Bank in recent months, but the scale of damage caused to the APC and the high number of Israeli injuries were. To aid the extraction of the wounded soldiers under fire, an Apache helicopter launched missiles at open areas near the site of the roadside bomb to deter the Islamic Jihad gunmen.

The use of the Apache was not typical for such operations. In the early 2000s, during the Second Intifada, the IDF used attack helicopters in the West Bank, but only in special circumstances and not as a matter of routine.

An Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopter flies over during an Israeli army raid in Jenin in the West Bank on June 19, 2023. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Then came Wednesday’s IDF drone strike on a car carrying three Palestinian gunmen from Jenin — two of them from Islamic Jihad and the third a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a coalition of armed groups loosely affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party. It marked the first such deadly airstrike on Palestinians in the West Bank since 2006, according to the IDF.

The strike, according to military officials, was not a targeted killing similar to Israel’s Gaza Strip playbook. The three gunmen were not senior officials and had not been tracked for months ahead of an assassination. Instead, they had the bad luck to attempt an attack just when Israel was seeking to regain deterrence in the area following a string of shooting attacks. To that end, the military had been given approval by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to carry out a drone strike on terror cells carrying out shooting attacks, should the circumstances allow it.

The trio had driven from Jenin to the nearby Jalameh Checkpoint and opened fire. Moments later, an Elbit Hermes 450 drone, operated by the Artillery Corps, struck their vehicle, killing them.

An Elbit Hermes 450 drone comes in for landing at the Palmachim airbase, during Operation Breaking Dawn in early August 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

Over the past year, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted troops carrying out arrest raids as well as military posts and checkpoints, Israeli settlements and civilians on roads, especially in the northern West Bank. Generally, such gunmen are either killed by ground forces during the attack or are later arrested or killed in army raids.

In recent weeks, terrorists in the northern West Bank appeared to have ramped up attacks, killing 32-year-old Meir Tamari near the settlement of Hermesh on May 30; wounding a civilian near the Palestinian town of Huwara on June 6; wounding one civilian and four soldiers near the Palestinian town of Yabed on June 13; and killing 17-year-old Nachman Mordoff, 17-year-old Elisha Anteman, 21-year-old Harel Masood and 64-year-old Ofer Fayerman on Tuesday near the settlement of Eli.

Israeli security forces at the scene of a deadly terror attack near the West Bank settlement of Eli, June 20, 2023. (Flash90)

Military officials say they have recognized that Palestinian terrorists are increasingly using highways in the northern West Bank to carry out their attacks and then flee back deep into Palestinian cities, often without being caught. One of the Hamas-affiliated terrorists who carried out the attack near Eli managed to flee some 70 kilometers (43 miles) in a stolen car before he was shot dead by special forces inside a Palestinian town.

The drone strike late Wednesday was carried out for that reason, according to military officials, in order to prevent the gunmen from fleeing and later carrying out further attacks. The trio, according to the IDF and Shin Bet security agency, were already behind numerous similar attacks in the northern West Bank.

The IDF also bolstered the West Bank with additional forces to better secure the highways following Tuesday’s deadly shooting near Eli.

An explosive charge left by Palestinians detonates near an Israeli armored vehicle during an Israeli army raid in Jenin in the West Bank on June 19, 2023. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Palestinian terrorists are changing the rules, with an uptick in shooting attacks in the northern West Bank, heavier resistance against Israeli incursions to Jenin, and even some unsuccessful attempts to manufacture rockets to launch at Israel or Israeli settlements. Now Israel, too, is beginning to employ new, or long unused, tactics to fight Palestinian terror.

If drone strikes on gunmen become a regular occurrence, it will likely impact the way terror groups in the area operate. It remains to be seen if the threat of military airpower will cause the organizations to limit their operations, at least in the short term, or instead spur on an even more severe cycle of escalation with Israel.

In the long term, Palestinian terror groups are expected to continue to adapt to Israel’s methods, changing their modus operandi and continuing to challenge the military.