The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stepped up its actions against Palestinian terror last week after nearly daily shootings and other terrorist activities occurred in Judea and Samaria over the past month.

A new Palestinian terror group called Arin al-Usud (Lion’s Den) was found to be primarily responsible for this wave of terror that mainly originated from the Palestinian city of Nablus (Shechem in Hebrew).

Lion’s Den is a small group of an estimated 50 young terrorists who claim to operate independently and said they have no direct ties to existing terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Israel, however, accused Hamas of sponsoring Lion’s Den and says Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas leader who organizes the terror group’s activities in Lebanon and Turkey, is behind the group’s founding.

Israeli TV Channel 12, furthermore, reported in late September that another Hamas terrorist by the name of Musab Shtayyeh was also involved in the founding of Lion’s Den and bought weapons and ammunition worth $1 million for the group.

The new terror group has, or rather had its headquarters in Shechem, a city of about 200,000 inhabitants in the heart of Samaria.

Had, because the IDF moved into Shechem’s kasbah last week and blew up the Lion’s Den headquarters after shoot-outs involving dozens of armed Palestinian Arabs.

Five members of the group were killed in that massive operation, including Wadee al-Houh, the group’s 31-year-old leader.

The Lion’s Den headquarters in Shechem also turned out to be a bomb factory and weapons depot.

IDF soldiers used unmanned aerial vehicles and shoulder-launched missiles to capture the building and assassinate the terrorists.

The scenes in Shechem resembled those in terror hotbed Jenin at the beginning of October, when the IDF moved into that city to make arrests.

Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs took to the streets during the IDF operation and threw burning tires, stones and boulders at the Israeli soldiers.

In the end, more than 20 Palestinian Arabs were injured, some seriously, in this confrontation with the IDF.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad vowed revenge after the IDF operation, while the Palestinian Authority (PA) spoke of “aggression against the Palestinian people” and even “war crimes.”

The PA is again playing a double role in the current wave of terror with the PA police carrying out the arrest of Lion’s Den founder Musab Shatyyeh on the one hand, and incitement and involvement in the current wave of terror on the other.

The PA is indeed playing an active role in the current terror offensive that began in March.

Evidence of the PA’s involvement in the wave of terror was delivered by the release of a new video by Fatah, the movement that is an integral part of the Palestinian Authority.

This video published by Palestinian Media Watch consists of a compilation of images of terrorist attacks over the last 10 months which was accompanied by inciting language.

According to Fatah, there have been more than 7,200 “actions by the resistance” so far in 2022, with the most “actions” against Israel and the “settlers” in April.

With resistance actions, Fatah not only means confrontations with the Israeli army, but also terrorist attacks against citizens of Israel. By using the word “settlers” the organization of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas means all Jewish Israelis.

In the video, Fatah accuses Hamas of inaction during the current wave of terror and of betraying Palestinian Islamic Jihad during the two-day war between the IDF and the Gaza-based terror group in early August this year.

In response to the terror wave in Judea and Samaria, the IDF has now again erected roadblocks in the area and temporarily closed off Shechem from the rest of Samaria.

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, last week, another raid was carried out by a large number of IDF soldiers in Shechem.

During this raid, again members of Lion’s Den were arrested, along with members of other terrorist organizations, and this time the soldiers met with surprisingly little violent resistance.

According to insiders, the terrorists were still reeling from the previous operation and from the superiority of the IDF.

That this was the right conclusion became apparent from what happened on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, last week.

Six prominent members of Lion’s Den decided to surrender themselves to the Palestinian police, among them Muhammed al-Bana who is believed to be the mastermind behind the many attacks carried out by the new terror group over the last few months.

Al-Bana reportedly said that the images of the assassination of their comrades by the IDF’s special forces had broken the morale of the group.

The IDF operation put an end to the activities of Lion’s Den in Shechem with a small number of members of the terrorist organization still active in Jenin.

These terrorists are now also reportedly in negotiations with the PA over “protective detention” at the Jericho prison, where they hope to be safe from the IDF actions.

With the liquidation of the new terror group, the IDF has once again shown that the war against such terrorist organizations can be won, just as happened in early August when the entire leadership and infrastructure of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was liquidated within 56 hours by the Israeli military.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the current terror wave is over, as became apparent on Saturday and Sunday when Palestinian lone-wolf terrorists executed two attacks against Israelis in Kiryat Arba and south of Jericho near the Dead Sea.