Foreign Affairs

Israel Destroys Palestinian Bomb Lab, Kills Terrorist Ringleader

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Israel claimed a raid that killed at least five Palestinians, including the leader of a terrorist cell, and destroyed a weapons workshop Palestine early Tuesday morning, according to the Washington Post.

Israeli forces detonated an explosives manufacturing lab used by the Lion’s Den, a local Islamic militant group, hidden in a residential apartment in the city of Nablus, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Washington Post reported. The raid, a significant escalation in the frequent clashes between Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian militants, left at least five Palestinians dead, including Lion’s Den leader Wadee al-Huh, and 20 wounded, the Post reported, citing Palestinian health ministries.

“Recently, this terrorist group has continued to recruit, plan, and carry out attacks aimed against innocent Israeli civilians,” the IDF said in a statement following the attack. “We will continue to operate to thwart the threat of terrorism.”

Local media reported a drone or missile strike on a vehicle, which would represent an unusual exercise of power by the Israeli military in the West Bank, according to the Post. Israel often conducts airstrikes on Islamic militant groups in Gaza, however, and Israeli media reported that commanders had authorized drone hits in other areas of Palestine.

The IDF declined to reveal to the Post whether it had employed a drone in the attack on the Lion’s Den weapons workshop Tuesday.

Videos circulated on social media depicting a fiery response to the raid, with residents setting cars and tires alight in the street and lobbing fragments of concrete at IDF armored vehicles, the Post reported.

“The troops responded with live fire toward the armed suspects shooting at them,” the IDF said.

The Palestinian health ministry updated the death count to six later Tuesday morning, as local organizers called for mobilization in response to the “martyrdom” of those killed in the Israeli attack, according to Beirut-based Al Mayadeen.

The IDF said none of its troops sustained injury, the Post reported.

Israel blamed Lion’s Den for the frequent attacks on IDF troops in recent months, such as the fatal shooting of IDF Sergeant Ido Baruch and attempting to commit a terrorist act in Tel Aviv. The militant group, comprised mostly of disaffected young males with uninhibited access to weapons, sprung up in 2021 and is one of several smaller militant groups that do not answer to the more established Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, according to the Post.

On Sunday, another Lion’s Den leader, Tamer al-Kilani, died after a motorcycle explosion, according to the Post. The Lion’s Den called the incident a targeted assassination.

Israeli and Palestinian officials did not comment on the claims put forth by the Lion’s Den, according to the Post.