Palestinian doctor, affiliated terrorist dies after engaging in gun battle against IDF troops

A member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terrorist group, Dr. Abdullah Abu Tin died from his wounds this week after participating in a fierce gun battle between terrorists and Israeli soldiers at the Jenin refugee camp.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades acknowledged Abu Tin as a member of the terrorist group and shared an undated poster of the doctor posing with no fewer than five assault rifles. The group stated that Abu Tin had died “in an armed clash” while “defending the homeland.” 

According to Israeli security services, the Palestinian doctor had directly engaged in the battle with IDF troops, while masked and armed with a rifle. 

The Israel Defense Forces reported that it had “fired accurate shots at armed men identified in the area” of the northern Samaria refugee camp and warned “uninvolved civilians” to recognize combat areas as posing “a life-threatening danger.”

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades was not alone in claiming shooters that had targeted Israeli troops in the area. The local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group claimed it had members that had shot at IDF soldiers. The Islamic Jihad group and Palestinian health officials both reported the death of Islamic Jihad terrorist Mateen Debaya during the recent gun battle.

According to the IDF, the shootout that took Debaya’s life erupted after Israeli soldiers entered the area to arrest 24-year-old Dia Salama, who was wanted for several recent shooting attacks that targeted both Israeli soldiers and civilians. 

When the IDF apprehended Salama, he was in possession of an M-16 assault rifle; Israeli officials stated that troops found additional military equipment at the shooter’s home. While the IDF believed Salama to be a member of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group, Palestinian media identified him as a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

Further arrests aim to quell uptick in violence

In Nablus, the IDF arrested two Palestinians suspected of the recent shooting attack targeting Jewish worshippers at the tomb of Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, and the Israeli soldiers escorting them. Joseph’s tomb is located on the outskirts of Nablus. 

Israeli troops also detained two wanted Palestinians in the Jenin area and three more elsewhere in Judea and Samaria. No Israeli troops were injured during the raids.

The disputed territories, and especially the Arab cities of Nablus and Jenin, have seen a significant surge in violence in recent months. The IDF regularly enters those cities to search for wanted terrorists, and local terrorists habitually respond with gunfire and other violence. 

Palestinian terrorists have targeted Israeli towns and settlements, Israeli soldiers operating military posts and serving along the West Bank security barrier, and even Israeli civilians on the roads. 

Last week, terrorists from “The Lions’ Den” shot and killed 21-year-old Israeli soldier Ido Baroukh in Samaria, just days after another soldier, 18-year-old Noa Lazar, was shot dead at a checkpoint near east Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp. 

IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi recently issued permission to use armed drones against terrorists in the area, a directive that was seen as an attempt to de-escalate the violence and to prevent the need for an extensive military operation.

Should the situation continue to deteriorate, a large-scale operation “can happen,” said Israel’s Interior Minister Omer Barlev at the end of September. Israel is “making targeted efforts and countermeasures” to prevent such a scenario, he said. 

“The possibility that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad could join in from the Gaza Strip, should we launch an operation, will not deter us,” Barlev noted.