Israel has flipped the equation on its head when it comes to dealing with Palestinian terrorism using drones, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video address released on Thursday.
The prime minister's comments were made in reference to the killing of a three-man terror cell in the West Bank late on Wednesday night with a drone, an unusual move generally reserved for targeting major terrorists or rocket-firing cells in Gaza.
"We constantly surprise them, we are constantly flipping the equation against the terrorists," Netanyahu said. "We have done it during Operation Shield and Arrow and we did it again last night in Jenin.
"The cell that was taken out by an unmanned aerial vehicle has carried out several terror attacks in the past and it was about to carry out more," Netanyahu revealed, adding that Israel "dealt with it using the element of surprise."
Netanyahu thanked the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate as well as the Shin Bet and the forces on the ground for what he called a "precise" operation.
אנחנו משנים את המשוואה. pic.twitter.com/b5GTliIiJJ
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 22, 2023
"We will continue operating with innovation - and we will come out on top," the prime minister vowed.
The rare West Bank drone strike
On Wednesday night, the IDF spokesperson confirmed that three Palestinian terrorists were killed in the drone strike. The terror cell, a mix of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, recently carried out a number of shooting attacks throughout the West Bank.
Once the cell was identified, the IDF gave a rapid order to have the drone fire on and kill the cell before they could escape again, as they have after past shootings.
The IDF spokesperson said that it was the first time that drones had been used in this manner in the West Bank since 2006, near the end of the Second Intifada.