IDF troops kill Palestinian terrorist who murdered Israeli guard in West Bank last year
Army says Sultan al-Ghani, who fled after killing Gidon Peri in August 2024, was slain in exchange of fire with commando unit south of Jenin
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A Palestinian terrorist who killed an Israeli security guard at a West Bank industrial park last year was killed by troops in a firefight on Tuesday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
On August 18, 2024, the assailant, Sultan al-Ghani, fatally wounded security guard Gidon Peri, 38, at the Bar-On industrial park near Kedumim by attacking him with a hammer, before snatching his handgun and fleeing the scene.
The military said Tuesday that IDF troops and Shin Bet officers operated in an area south of Jenin overnight, during which the forces nabbed five suspected accomplices of al-Ghani.
Then Tuesday morning, soldiers of the Duvdevan commando unit encircled a building where al-Ghani was holed up and he was killed in an exchange of fire, the IDF said.
The military said that during scans in the building afterward, the soldiers found several firearms, an explosive device and ammunition.
Peri was on duty as a civilian security guard in the industrial park, located in the northern West Bank, at the time of the attack. He was hit in the head with a hammer and taken in critical condition to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where his death was later declared.
בתיעוד ממצלמות הגוף של לוחמי דובדבן: צפו ברגעי החיסול הבוקר של המחבל בחטיבת מנשה
בפעילות משותפת מדרום לעיר ג׳נין, לוחמי דובדבן וכוחות שב״כ, חיסלו הבוקר לאחר חילופי אש, את המחבל סולטאן אל גאני שביצע את הפיגוע באזור התעשייה בראון pic.twitter.com/n1HrpAA0lK
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 25, 2025
A military source said at the time that al-Ghani fled initially in a car and then on foot after grabbing Peri’s handgun.
Al-Ghani had a work permit to enter Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank and he worked in a factory in the industrial park, according to defense sources.
The operation on Tuesday came hours after another Palestinian assailant, who killed two soldiers last year and had been on the run since, was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus.
On Monday evening, Abdel-Raouf Shatyeh — who was accused of ramming his vehicle into an Israeli army post in May 2024, killing Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel and Staff Sgt. Diego Shvisha Harsaj — was killed by counterterrorism police in the West Bank.
The IDF and Shin Bet said that they had been working to track down Shatyeh ever since he fled the scene of the attack in 2024.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents.
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