Israeli forces conducted operations in the city of Qalqilya on Thursday as part of a wide-scale counter-terrorism sweep in western Samaria, east of Kfar Saba.
During the raid, IDF soldiers opened fire and killed a terrorist who posed an immediate threat by throwing a suspicious object in their direction, the military said.
Troops operated across much of the city, searching hundreds of locations and seizing weapons, including an M16 rifle, a gun barrel and dozens of rounds of ammunition.
Forces also apprehended weapons dealers, known terrorists and suspects involved in the production of explosive devices, the IDF said. All detainees were transferred to authorities for further questioning.
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces detained a senior Palestinian arms dealer during a counter-terrorism raid in western Samaria. Ahmad Nasrallah was apprehended in Tulkarem’s Irtah neighborhood, where he served as a “central weapons dealer.”
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 terror bombings in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, in which three empty buses exploded and additional devices were discovered on two others.
Two Israeli Defense Forces soldiers were lightly wounded on Tuesday morning in a Palestinian terrorist attack outside the community of Ateret in Samaria’s Binyamin region. In a separate terrorist attack overnight Monday, an IDF soldier sustained injuries in a vehicular assault at the Judea Junction in the Hebron area.
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 counter-terror 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.
