Five more Lion’s Den militants killed by Israeli forces in West Bank

Israel has revived decades-old tactics against a new Palestinian militant group in the West Bank, killing five of its members in an overnight raid two days after assassinating one of its leaders.

Acting on intelligence gathered by Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, a large force — including squads from the anti-terrorism unit of the Israeli police and special forces — attacked an alleged bomb factory in the centre of Nablus early this morning.

Sources said they had information about a meeting of leaders of the Lion’s Den militant group in a flat in the kasbah. Inside the property was Wadi al-Houh, one of the group’s founders and leaders, as well as four other members.

According to reports from the city, an antitank missile was fired at the flat followed by fighting in the narrow street. Israeli sources claimed that further explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices stored in the flat and a car owned by one of the members parked near by. Houh and the four other members were killed in the operation and at least 20 Palestinians were wounded.

It was the second attack carried out in Nablus by Israeli special forces against the group. On Sunday morning another Lion’s Den leader was killed in Nablus by an explosive device planted inside his motorbike and detonated by remote control.

Israeli security experts said that the methods being used against a hitherto unknown group in the West Bank were unprecedented in the past decade and were similar to those used by Mossad against Iranian targets. It underlines the seriousness with which Israel sees the new threat.

Lion’s Den was formed earlier this year by young armed activists in response to Israeli military incursions into the city. The group has been carrying out shooting and bombing attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank. It has no formal affiliation with any of the more established Palestinian organisations, though some of its leaders are from families that have long been identified with Fatah, the movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority. Some of its members also come from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations that are in opposition to Fatah.

According to Israeli intelligence they have started to receive financial assistance from Hamas. One senior Israeli defence official said that “they are not controlled by Hamas but Hamas would like to have a hand in any source of unrest and violence in the West Bank”.

Lion’s Den creates a headache both for the Israelis, who are fighting a group with an unclear hierarchy and no known connections, and for the Palestinian Authority, which has lost control over parts of Nablus, especially the alleyways of the kasbah, where Lion’s Den holds sway. The Palestinian security forces fear to act against them due to their popularity on the streets.

Visiting a military headquarters shortly after the operation, Benny Gantz, the Israeli defence minister, said that “those who try and harm Israeli citizens will end either in prison or a grave”.

Israel is going to the polls in a week but Gantz denied that there was any political motive in the operation. “The operational considerations are dictated only by security necessity,” he said, urging the Palestinian Authority to take control of its territory.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, said the Israeli operation was a “war crime which will have dangerous and destructive consequences”.