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Police nab 16 Gazan infiltrators in Galilee

The arrests came a day after a Gazan terrorist, also in Israel illegally, murdered a police officer in Yavne.

Israeli police officers, Nov. 1, 2022. Credit: Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit.
Israeli police officers, Nov. 1, 2022. Credit: Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit.

Israeli security forces arrested 16 Gazans who were on their way to Judea and Samaria from the Western Galilee on Wednesday, a day after a terrorist from the Strip murdered a police officer, the Israel Police said.

In a joint operation with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), police officers stopped a van transporting the illegal infiltrators between the Arab towns of Jadeidi-Makr and Kabul, east of Acre, according to a statement to the press.

The driver of the vehicle, a 48-year-old Israeli from Umm al-Fahm, was transporting the Gazans back to their temporary residence in Judea and Samaria, a police probe showed.

Police noted that the Arab motorist was previously convicted of ferrying Palestinian infiltrators. He was detained for questioning and his vehicle was impounded pending the investigation.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian illegally within the Green Line from northern Gaza who lived in Judea and Samaria shot and killed police First Sgt. Adir Kadosh in a terrorist attack in the city of Yavne, northeast of Ashdod. Four others were wounded.

Following the shooting, Knesset member Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism Party) called on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to order the immediate arrest of all potential Gaza terrorists who infiltrated the Jewish state.

According to Sukkot, who chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s subcommittee for Judea and Samaria, Palestinians from Gaza are let to roam freely in the region due to a lack of prison space.

“The next attack can be prevented, and the security establishment must do so,” Sukkot wrote. “All potential terrorists who infiltrated Judea and Samaria from the Gaza Strip must be arrested and immediately returned to the Strip, without the need for any place of detention.”

In August, Israeli security forces arrested three illegal infiltrators from the Gaza Strip near the Jewish community of Ofra in the Binyamin region of Samaria, only to soon release two of the suspects.

The army did not explain how the men, residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza, had entered Israeli territory or why two of them were released.

The Israel Border Police alone has detained more than 8,000 illegal Arab infiltrators since the start of 2024, according to data published in June.

“My policy regarding illegals, who are a platform for terrorism, is very clear—zero tolerance!” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on June 3, after undercover officers arrested 17 Palestinian infiltrators as they attempted to enter Jerusalem through a Samaria checkpoint.

In November, Jerusalem police arrested 11 Palestinians from Gaza, including the sister of a Hamas terrorist, during a raid of Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital on the capital’s Mount of Olives.

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