Israel has killed the Palestinian militants who last month shot and killed three members of the British-Israeli Dee family when they were travelling in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank on the way to a family holiday in the north of Israel.
After obtaining pinpoint intelligence information on the safe house where the fugitives were hiding, some 200 Israeli troops, led by undercover troops disguised as Arab women, entered the crowded alleyways of the kasbah in the old city of Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city and a militant hotbed.
Assisted by shoulder-mounted anti-tank missiles and stun grenades fired from drones, the soldiers killed the two men, named as Hassan Qatanani and Moaz Masri, along with a third Palestinian, Ibrahim Jabr, who had assisted the men and provided them with a safe house following the attack.
Israeli forces came under fire and stone-throwing in the ensuing clashes with Palestinian militants but did not suffer any casualties.
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Palestinians reported a number of residents were lightly hurt, mainly from smoke inhalation.
After the operation, which lasted just over an hour, Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that the three fatalities belonged to the group and that they carried out the Jordan Valley attack in which Lucy Dee (48) and two of her daughters, Maia (20) and Rina (15), were killed.
Thousands of mourners carrying green Hamas flags attended the funeral of the three militants in Nablus on Thursday afternoon.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel had settled accounts with the murderers of the Dee family members.
“Our message to those who hurt us and to those who try to hurt us – whether it takes a day, a week or a month – be sure that we will reach you.”
Rabbi Leo Dee, who served as a rabbi in London before immigrating to Israel with his family, expressed relief that the killers of his wife and daughters were no longer able to harm anyone else.
“The world will be able to sleep better when these terrorists are no longer alive. I am very happy to hear that no soldier or civilian was hurt in the operation,” he said. “We are proud to live in a country where security forces are so precise and skilled.”
In a separate incident on Thursday a Palestinian woman, named as Iman Odeh (26) was shot and killed by troops south of Nablus after stabbing and lightly wounding an Israeli soldier.
Meanwhile, protests resumed on Thursday by opponents of the judicial overhaul planned by Mr Netanyahu’s coalition, made up entirely of right-wing and religious parties. Dubbed the Day of Equality, Thursday’s protests focused on the coalition’s plans to legislate blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox students attending yeshiva religious seminaries.
Protesters blocked highways and picketed the homes of ministers. In Tel Aviv’s ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak neighbourhood army reservists protested outside the home of a leading Rabbi, holding up a banner which read: “There must be a sharing of the burden, through either military or civilian service.”
Women dressed in red costumes and white hoods based on the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale marched in front of the Rabbinical court in Tel Aviv. “We are at a critical point of anti-democratic legislation and only a few hours away from the abandonment of women in Israel due to the move led by the male coalition to expand the powers of the rabbinical courts in Israel,” organisers said.
