IDF busts West Bank terror cell manufacturing rockets to be launched at Israel

The Israeli military said Friday it had caught a Palestinian terror cell in the Ramallah area of the West Bank that had been building rockets intended to be launched at Israeli targets.

The raid came after the military said troops last week found a crude rocket that a terror cell had launched from the Palestinian town of Kafr Ni’ma as part of a test.

Overnight, IDF soldiers, Shin Bet officers, and members of the police counter-terror Yamam unit reached a building in the area to detain members of the cell, the military said.

The IDF said the forces opened fire on the building, including with shoulder-launched missiles, and three suspects emerged who were then detained and handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.

Inside the building, the military said troops found dozens of rocket parts, including two completed rockets that did not yet have a warhead. The soldiers also found dozens of explosive devices and explosive material, alongside other evidence tying the cell members to the efforts to build and launch rockets.

The rockets and explosive material were destroyed, the IDF said.

The police published footage showing the Yamam officers raiding the building, while the army released a video showing the cache of rockets being destroyed.

At another location in the Ramallah area, the military said soldiers found a lathe used to build the rocket parts.

Footage released on Friday showed the rocket launch from Kafr Ni’ma a week prior.

The rocket was assessed to have flown several hundred meters, as part of a test carried out by the terror cell in the area, whose members were later detained.

In recent years, there have been several attempts by Palestinian terror groups to develop and launch crude rockets from the West Bank at Israeli settlements and at Israel, though with little to no success.

תיעוד שיגור הרקטה המאולתרת בשבוע שעבר מהכפר נעמה באזור רמאללה. הרקטה עברה מרחק של 2 ק"מ, במסגרת ניסוי, ללא ראש קרב pic.twitter.com/i2yBGT3JJf

— איתי בלומנטל ???????? Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) September 19, 2025

Following the operation, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said such terror efforts were proof of the “enormous danger” in establishing a Palestinian state, as several Western states prepare to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state in the coming days at the United Nations General Assembly.

Yamam officers raid a building near Ramallah in the West Bank where terror operatives were building rockets, and IDF troops demolish the cache of weapons, September 19, 2025. (Israel Police; Israel Defense Forces)

Sa’ar wrote on X that the rockets were made to be launched “at communities in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical name for the West Bank. He accused the Palestinian Authority of failing to combat terror.

“If Israel does not maintain security control over Judea and Samaria — the entire State of Israel will be in danger,” he wrote.