The Israel Defense Forces, together with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), arrested in the past week more than 75 Palestinian terrorist suspects in Judea and Samaria, the military said on Friday.
Israeli troops operated in dozens of Palestinian villages, the IDF noted. The soldiers are being deployed in Jewish communities, on roads and elsewhere in the area ahead of the Jewish holiday season.
Among those detained were 10 terrorists involved in terror activity in the city of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, 13 terrorists engaged in attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces in the Bethlehem area, and nine Hamas operatives and arms dealers in the Tulkarem and Salfit regions, western and central Samaria, the army added.
All detainees were transferred to the Judea and Samaria District Police and the ISA for further handling.
The IDF found and confiscated a “Carlo-style” weapon in the Qabatiya area as well as additional weapons and ammunition in the Tulkarem and Salfit areas, the military said.
The Carlo is a cheaply made submachine gun that is relatively easy to assemble. The Palestinian terrorists who claimed the lives of six Israelis in the mass-shooting attack in northern Jerusalem earlier this month reportedly used Carlo weapons.
Also on Friday, Israeli security forces arrested in Samaria a group of terrorists who had attempted to launch a rocket from the Ramallah area the previous week, the IDF said.
Fighters belonging to the IDF, Shin Bet and the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit arrested three suspected terrorists in a raid on a building. In it, the troops found two launch-ready rockets, dozens of improvised explosive devices and explosives and other evidence linking the suspects to attempts to manufacture and launch rockets, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
The rockets had no warheads, the statement added.