IDF says 70 wanted Palestinians arrested in West Bank counter-terror raids

The IDF says its forces, together with the Shin Bet, Border Police and West Bank police, arrested 70 wanted Palestinians over the past week in counterterrorism raids across the West Bank.

In the northern West Bank, troops detained 25 suspects, seized 13 rifles, four pistols and a Carlo-style submachine gun, and destroyed several explosive devices, the announcement says. Another pistol was confiscated in the Hebron area.

According to the IDF, a senior Hamas operative preparing an improvised explosive device (IED) attack against Israeli civilians was arrested in the town of Seida in the northern West Bank. In Qabatiya, also in the territory’s north, soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade’s reconnaissance unit detained several additional suspects and neutralized an IED.

Dozens more Palestinians accused of involvement in terror activity were arrested elsewhere in the West Bank. During large-scale raids in Silwad and Ein Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah, and Hizma, in the northern part of east Jerusalem in Israel, the IDF says its forces seized weapons and “incitement materials.”

The suspects and confiscated weapons were handed over to police and the Shin Bet for further investigation, the announcement said.