The IDF has withdrawn from the northern West Bank’s Qabatiya, according to Palestinian media, ending a two-day operation that was launched in the northern West Bank town after a resident killed two people and wounded two others in a ramming-and-stabbing attack in northern Israel on Friday.
The IDF does not immediately comment on the reports.
Ahmed al-Rub is accused of murdering 68-year-old Shimshon Mordechai and 19-year-old Aviv Maor during an extended terror spree on a highway near Beit She’an.
Qabatiya Mayor Ahmed Zakarneh tells WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, that during the operation in Qabatiya, troops raided some 50 homes, six of which the military took over and used as tactical bases.
Fifty people were detained in the raids, all of whom have been released except for al-Rub’s father and two brothers, says Zakarneh.
The operation also saw the IDF cause damage to several roads and electric lines, impose a curfew on Qabatiya and cut it off from other towns in the area, preventing many people from reaching their workplaces, Zakarneh tells WAFA.
The IDF said earlier today that it had completed sealing off Rub’s home.
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