A terrorist infiltration alert was issued in the Judea city of Efrat on Sunday after a vehicle with Palestinian Authority license plates broke through a security checkpoint.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command ordered residents to remain indoors and shutter doors and windows shortly before 10 p.m. The IDF announced the end of the incident around an hour later.
A message sent to resident cited by local media said that sirens sounded after a vehicle with “non-Israeli” license plates passed through Efrat’s northern entrance gate without stopping for a security inspection.
The city’s emergency response squad was activated, in addition to other security forces, but it turned out that the suspect vehicle had made a U-turn and fled Efrat without dropping off any passengers, reports stated.
During a separate counter-terrorism raid in the Qabatiya area of northern Samaria overnight Sunday, Israeli security forces apprehended a number of Palestinian suspects, the IDF said on Monday.
“These terrorists had fled Jenin following the counter-terrorism operations in northern Samaria and over the past seven months,” according to the military statement.
IDF soldiers and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents apprehended “an active terrorist in the Jenin terrorist network, along with two of his accomplices,” as part of the Qabatiya operation, it added. An M16 rifle and ammunition were found during additional searches of the area.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit operated in Mirka, near Jenin. During the raid, an armed member of the Jenin cell tried to escape. He was killed with gunfire and “additional technological means,” the IDF said.
“Israeli security forces will continue to operate to thwart terrorism in Judea and Samaria and bring to justice the terrorists who harmed or planned to harm civilians or security forces,” it added.
On Saturday, a Palestinian armed with a knife was arrested after being subdued by local security at the entrance gate to Kibbutz Metzer in northern Israel.
The suspect, 24, was a resident of Tulkarem, a Palestinian city abutting the Green Line in the Hefer Valley region, the Israel Police said. He was taken into custody and handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times last year, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
