More than 70 terror suspects from the West Bank were arrested Saturday following overnight operations, according to an IDF statement.
The wide-scale operation comes after two Israelis, including an IDF officer, were killed and several others were lightly to seriously wounded in a terror shooting on Friday near Gilad Farm, a settlement located southwest of Nablus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a sweeping crackdown across the West Bank on Friday, including increased troop deployments, new checkpoints, and expanded counterterrorism operations.
According to the IDF, a group of Israeli civilians had illegally crossed into Palestinian Authority-controlled territory while hiking in the area, leading to a confrontation with local Palestinians.
The military said Palestinians began throwing rocks before one of them opened fire.
Security forces arrest dozens in West Bank operations
The two Israelis killed were later identified as 32-year-old Master-Sergeant (res.) Benayahu Melet, a member of Gilad Farm’s emergency response squad who was killed after rushing to aid the hikers, and 27-year-old IDF Maj. Yuval Ezra, an artillery battery commander.
Following the attack, Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir held a security assessment to discuss Israel’s response, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“We will act strongly against terrorists and their proxies, and we will not allow terrorism in Judea and Samaria to raise its head,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu and Katz later announced five immediate measures: demolishing the home of the suspected attacker; expanding counterterrorism operations in villages described as “hotbeds of terror,” including seizing weapons and revoking work permits, reinforcing IDF deployments across the West Bank, establishing additional checkpoints, and accelerating the authorization of existing farms and the establishment of new ones.
The two also stressed that security forces must be allowed to operate “freely and with full force” against terrorism without interference.
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director David Zini visited the scene and held a situational assessment with agency and IDF commanders, describing the attack as “grave and painful.”
“We are working tirelessly, shoulder-to-shoulder with the commanders of the Central Command and the division, as well as IDF commanders and soldiers, to thwart terrorism in the sector,” Zini said.
At the same time, he urged Israelis not to retaliate independently following the clashes in the area.
“I call on the public not to take the law into their own hands and to place their trust in the IDF and the Shin Bet, whose purpose and duty are to protect them,” he said.
Crackdown following terror attack
In the crackdown after the terrorist attack, the Samaria Brigade, in cooperation with the IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police, completed a brigade operation in the village of Tell, where the terrorist who carried out Friday’s shooting attack lived.
The Nahal Reconnaissance Unit, members of the Menashe Brigade, the Binyamin Brigade, the Ephraim Brigade, and Duvdevan took part in making arrests and conducted additional questioning.
Additionally, Duvdevan special operations troops arrested a terrorist who intended to carry out an attack and a Hamas-affiliated wanted suspect during operations in the Tulkarm area.
Menashe Brigade forces searched more than 300 locations and arrested Hamas-affiliated suspects and terrorists who had been pursuing bomb attacks.
Binyamin Brigade forces arrested approximately 20 suspects involved in advancing terrorist plots, throwing Molotov cocktails, and trafficking weapons.
All the suspects were transferred to security forces for further questioning.
In other news in the West Bank, two Israeli men, one of them an active-duty soldier, were injured in a violent incident at the Sussiya Junction near the Hebron Hills on Saturday, when a Palestinian man threw stones towards them and stole a weapon from them.
The IDF clarified in a statement that, contrary to initial reports, the incident was not a shooting attack but a violent clash that included stone-throwing against the Israeli civilians.
The statement added that the attacker took the weapon from one of the civilians involved, at which point shots were fired into the air.
The Mount Hebron Council confirmed that one of the men involved was a local farmer from the area and the other one was an active-duty soldier who was on leave at home.
Security and armed forces were deployed to the area and conducted an extensive search to find the attacker, with the military adding that the stolen weapon was located and recovered.
James Genn contributed to this report.