A senior military officer spoke this morning about the complex operation to capture Barkan attack terrorist Ashraf Na’alwa which ended in his elimination.The senior officer said that the terrorist was hiding in the Askar refugee camp in Shechem and planned to carry out additional attacks: "The terrorist was defined by us as a violent attacker and therefore there was urgency to kill him before he carried out another attack. It has been a whole week since entire units in the army have stopped their operations in order to deal exclusively with pursuing him.”
The army knows that the terrorist hid in the past two months in Samaria, and forces chased him everywhere.
According to the senior officer, the Barkan terrorist was a “lone wolf” attacker, and only during the hunt for him and his escape did he get help from various people in the area who were not part of any squad.
"The information about his location was received yesterday by the Shin Bet. We arrived covertly to the area, and our working assumption was that he would fight and not surrender. The urgency was to arrest him before he carried out another attack. We will be investigating the path he traversed over the last two months."
According to the senior officer, the Barkan terrorist was a “lone wolf” attacker, and only during the hunt for him and his escape did he get help from various people in the area who were not part of any squad.
"The information about his location was received yesterday by the Shin Bet. We arrived covertly to the area, and our working assumption was that he would fight and not surrender. The urgency was to arrest him before he carried out another attack. We will be investigating the path he traversed over the last two months."
"This year, we arrested 2,700 terrorists who planned to carry out terrorist attacks, and some of them succeed in carrying out their attacks, as in this case," the officer said. “The big story of Judea and Samaria is the very fact that the thwarting of terror attempts is being done deep in the field, and it this that allows for the prevention of thousands of terrorists from carrying out their plots.”
Regarding the cell that carried out the attack at the Ofra junction, the officer said: "We are in a process. It is not certain that the entire squad has been caught, and therefore we are prepared to defend the settlements and civilians."
According to the senior officer, Hamas is the most violent organization in Judea and Samaria and is making great efforts to carry out attacks, most of which are successfully thwarted.
According to the senior officer, Hamas is the most violent organization in Judea and Samaria and is making great efforts to carry out attacks, most of which are successfully thwarted.
"Deterrence exists but in order to preserve it, we need to keep working. Lately, we see attempts to carry out terrorist attacks, and the weaker the Palestinian Authority is, the more likely the terrorists are to carry out attacks."
