Israeli security forces concluded a major counterterrorism operation in the Samaria city of Tulkarem on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The operation, which lasted for over 20 hours and included IDF soldiers as well as Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Border Police officers, saw one armed terrorist killed and six suspects arrested.
Forces searched more than 60 buildings, seizing terrorists’ weapons and destroying three workshops for the production of explosives, the army said.
As part of the counterterror operation in Tulkarem, IDF combat engineers worked to rip up roads under which explosive devices had been buried to kill and injure Israeli forces.
Tulkarem, a town east of Netanya that borders the Green Line, is located only eight miles from Israel’s densely populated coastal plain.
In the seven months since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 cross-border terror attacks from the Gaza Strip, approximately 4,000 wanted terrorists have been arrested by Israeli forces throughout Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including some 1,700 believed to be associated with Hamas.
In recent days, Israeli forces carried out arrests in Huwara near Nablus, El-Bireh near Ramallah and Ad-Dhahiriya near Hebron, the IDF announced on Tuesday. During the latter raid, a suspect was arrested who is believed to have aided the terrorist responsible for a deadly March 31 stabbing.
On Saturday night, an officer from the police’s Yamam counterterrorism unit was seriously wounded during a raid on a Hamas cell near Tulkarem.
The cell was responsible for the murder of off-duty IDF reservist Elhanan Klein, 29, a father of three from Einav, last November, in the area of the Beit Lid Junction. An additional officer was wounded in that attack. The squad also carried out a bombing on April 7 that wounded two Israelis.
