A senior security official estimated that the military operation in Jenin would continue for about another 24 hours, assuming there is no major escalation from the Palestinian Arab side, Channel 12 News reported.
The official said that "we did not come to occupy the [Jenin] refugee camp, this is not an operation against the Palestinian Authority, the target - the terrorist organizations of Jenin."
The White House stated that the Biden Administration was watching the operation "with concern" and called on the Palestinian Authority not to follow through on its announcement that security cooperation with Israel would be stopped.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this evening that "the IDF last night launched an extensive operation against terrorist targets in Jenin. In recent months, Jenin has become a haven for terrorism - we are putting an end to it."
"Our forces entered Jenin into the nests of terrorists - they eliminate terrorists, they arrest wanted persons, they destroy headquarters and seize many weapons, and they do another thing - they destroy laboratories on an almost industrial scale. Laboratories from which they made explosives and IEDs intended for the slaughter and murder of Israeli civilians. They are doing all of this in one of the densest places on earth, and they are doing it with minimal harm to civilians up to this moment, and no harm to those not involved, and this is the directive - to look after the security of our forces and also to avoid harming innocent people as much as possible," Netanyahu said.