Israeli troops raid Hebron, nab suspects for questioning after reports of gunfire

IDF demolishes home of terrorist accused of carrying out deadly attacks; 19-year-old Palestinian succumbs to wounds after he was seriously hurt by reported settler gunfire

By Emanuel Fabian and Noam Lehmann 19 February 2026, 2:13 am
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Illustrative: IDF soldiers guard a tour of the West Bank city of Hebron, on February 14, 2026. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
Illustrative: IDF soldiers guard a tour of the West Bank city of Hebron, on February 14, 2026. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Israeli troops began conducting a raid in the West Bank city of Hebron, arresting dozens of suspects after gunfire was heard in the area earlier on Wednesday, the military said.

The Israel Defense Forces said that it received reports of gunfire sounds emanating from a Palestinian neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.

Upon receiving the report, the army said troops, Border Police officers, and Shin Bet agents entered the neighborhood “for a wide operational activity with the aim of arresting gunmen and confiscating weapons.”

The IDF said dozens of suspects have so far been detained for questioning, and several roads in the area were blocked.

Separately, the military said Wednesday that troops demolished the home of a Hamas terrorist behind two deadly attacks in the West Bank in 2024.

Raafat Dawasi, who was killed in a drone strike on August 17, 2024, was a top member of a Hamas terror network in the Jenin area.

The IDF said Dawasi was involved in a roadside bomb attack in Jenin on June 27, 2024, during which Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, was killed, and 16 other troops were wounded, as well as a shooting on August 11, 2024, in the Jordan Valley, which killed Yonatan Deutsch, 23, and wounded another man.

The army said troops operated in the town of Silat al-Harithiya on Tuesday night and demolished Dawasi’s home.

Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley, in the West Bank, on August 11, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks. An appeal can be submitted, but such attempts rarely succeed.

Israeli officials have said the policy is intended to dissuade Palestinians from planning terror attacks, as doing so will harm their extended families’ livelihood. Critics call it collective punishment.

Also Wednesday, dozens of Bedouin Palestinians, reportedly attacked by settlers the day before, dismantled their compound, itself a refuge after settler violence pushed them out of their original community in October 2023, activists said on Wednesday.

Footage published by activists showed men from the displaced shepherding community of Wadi al-Seeq loading water tanks and other equipment onto trucks and taking apart the encampment they were living in near the village of Rammun, east of Ramallah in the central West Bank.

The village is close to where the community lived before it uprooted itself the first time, days into the war sparked by the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, after a group of Israeli soldiers and settlers allegedly beat, burned, and sexually assaulted three Wadi al-Seeq residents.

Avishay Mohar, an activist journalist, said on social media that the encampment near Rammun was taken apart Wednesday morning, and that the 12 families who lived there left to seek safety “closer to the built-up area” of the village.

Left-wing Israeli group Looking the Occupation in the Eyes, which accompanies Palestinian communities in the area, said the new encampment was located on private Palestinian land that is recognized as such by Israeli authorities. The site is located within Area C, which is under full Israeli security control.

According to the left-wing group, settlers who stormed the compound wielded rifles to beat four men, two of whom were hospitalized. The settlers also stole some 45 head of livestock as well as money and electrical equipment, the activists said.

Citing eyewitnesses, Haaretz reported on Tuesday that the settlers stormed the compound after one of them tried to bring his sheep to graze there and was blocked by residents.

IDF forces arrived at the scene and stood by for an extended period before employing riot dispersal measures against Palestinians, Haaretz said. No arrests were reported, and the IDF did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that three people were hospitalized, one of them in serious condition, after being hit by settler gunfire in the Palestinian town of Mukhmas in the central West Bank on Wednesday afternoon.

The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, which includes Mukhmas, later reported that the Palestinian who was seriously injured died of his wounds. He was identified as Mukhmas resident Nasrallah Abu Siam, 19.

He died at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was brought with four other Palestinians who were wounded in the attack, according to the PA governorate, which earlier said the settlers attacked homes on the outskirts of the town while accompanied by IDF soldiers, and stole dozens of animals from farms and barns in the area.

The killing represents a “dangerous escalation that calls for international sanctions” on Israel and settlers, said the governorate. It added that the escalation is “incited and supported by members of the Israeli government — chief among them the ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich,” Israel’s national security and finance ministers, respectively.

Abu Siam was the first person killed by Israeli settlers in 2026, and the 37th since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, according to the PA’s official news agency WAFA.

The military did not immediately comment, and there were no reports of arrests of either Israelis or Palestinians.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas-led onslaught 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, 65 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 recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.

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