The IDF operated overnight and on Saturday morning to hunt down the killer of Elhanan Klein, which saw soldiers from the navy and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Services) confront a terror cell and kill five terrorists, the military reported.
The cell, which had been under surveillance for half a year, was intercepted by Israeli forces just as they were allegedly planning another major terrorist act. The confrontation erupted late Thursday evening in a densely populated residential area where terrorists were using civilian cover to evade capture.
The intense firefight, which lasted more than 12 hours, resulted in the critical injury of an elite IDF commando. Medical teams at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva are currently battling to save his life. The operation was led by Menashe Brigade Commander Lt.-Col. Ayoub Kayouf, involving stealth tactics that aimed to surprise and quickly apprehend the terrorists with minimal civilian involvement and collateral damage.
According to the report, the IDF raided the village of Deir al-Ghusun in the Tulkarm area, targeting the terrorists who carried out the attack last November near the town of Beit Lid on Highway 557, where Klein, a father of three from Enav, was killed on his way back from reserve duty.
The terrorists also carried out a terror attack on April 7, 2024, near the Nabi Elias junction in the West Bank, in which two Israelis were wounded, one of them a female soldier.
The military said that the four terrorists who were killed were Adnan Taisir Kamal Samara, a Hamas member from Tulkarm who had previously been imprisoned for being involved with the terrorist group; Alaa Adib Abed Aljaber Sharitakh, another Hamas member who had been imprisoned for 14 years due to his involvement in terrorist activity; Tamer Abed Allatif Rajeh Rajeh, a Hamas member from the town of Shuweika; and Asal Bashir Taufik Badran a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member from the town of Deir al-Ghusun who had also been imprisoned for being involved in terrorist activity.
The military noted that in the past few months, additional collaborators had been arrested and had confessed to being involved in the attacks, funded by Hamas.
Despite stall in Gaza, IDF continues West Bank operations
The terrorists barricaded themselves inside a house and opened fire on the IDF soldiers, who responded by opening fire and using shoulder-fired missiles, as well as a remotely piloted aircraft, to attack the building.
In addition to the five terrorists who were eliminated, five wanted individuals were arrested in the nearby village of Sebastia near Nablus.
The IDF dismantled defenses and breached houses in Tulkarm, looking for a number of terrorists in the area.
The standoff concluded when engineering units used heavy machinery to breach the building after prolonged exchanges of gunfire. Despite initial assessments that the building’s destruction had neutralized the threat, two terrorists emerged from the debris, leading to further confrontations. One attacker attempted to continue the assault but was neutralized by an IDF bulldozer operated by the Engineering Corps.
Avi Ashkenazi contributed to this report.