
Forces from the IDF’s Duvdevan Unit and from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) eliminated two terrorists in Jenin on Wednesday evening.
The defense establishment is investigating whether the terrorists who were eliminated are the ones who carried out the attack in Funduq about two weeks ago, in which Elad Winklestein, Rachel Cohen and Aliza Rize were murdered.
The elimination was part of the IDF’s ongoing operation in Jenin. The two terrorists were eliminated following a "pressure cooker" procedure (an IDF tactic designed to deal with an enemy barricaded in a house -ed.) on a building in Wadi Burqin that lasted about four hours and included an exchange of gunfire.
An IDF investigation revealed that the terrorists who carried out the Funduq attack came from the Jenin and Qabatiya areas in northern Samaria, with two of them being known to defense officials. The military post at the entrance to the village, which is not permanently manned, was empty for about half an hour before the murder.
Following the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situation assessment in which he approved actions to apprehend the terrorists, including additional defensive and offensive operations in Judea and Samaria.
Winklestein, 35, a father of two, was an investigator at the Ariel police station. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Cohen, 73, was an educational guidance counselor and the mother of five daughters. Rize, whose surprise 70th birthday party was planned for next week, was also a guidance counselor and one of the founders of Kedumim. The two women were close friends.