The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday detained a senior Palestinian arms dealer during a counterterrorism raid in western Samaria, the military said.
Ahmad Nasrallah was apprehended in a joint IDF–Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) operation in Tulkarm’s Irtah neighborhood, where he served as a “central weapons dealer,” according to the statement.
Nasrallah was transferred to authorities for further questioning, the military added.
Israel’s security forces “continue to operate to thwart terror in the area, and will operate against anyone who harms or tries to harm Israeli civilians,” the statement concluded.
On Nov. 26, the Israeli military launched “Operation Five Stones,” aimed at countering the terrorist threat emanating from Palestinian villages and cities in western and northern Samaria.
Security forces had already intensified operations across Judea and Samaria following the failed Feb. 20 bombings outside Tel Aviv, in which three empty buses exploded and additional devices were discovered on two others.
The IDF said on Saturday night that troops continued to locate and destroy explosives and other weapons as part of ongoing “offensive activity in the northern Samaria region.”
During preparations to demolish terrorist structures in Jenin, soldiers uncovered an “explosives laboratory, ammunition, several explosives and additional weapons intended for terrorism,” the military said.
The Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit detained a Samaria terrorist cell “that intended to plan an attack in the immediate timeframe,” the IDF said in a separate statement on Sunday.
Five suspects were arrested during a raid in Barta’a, a Palestinian village along the Samaria security barrier, the military added.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria).
The group’s data did not include the hundreds of attacks targeting Israeli security personnel during ongoing counterterror raids in Palestinian Authority–controlled cities and towns.
Twenty-seven Israelis were killed in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
