IDF troops kill terrorist who carried out West Bank shooting attack in January

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist, one of the perpetrators of a deadly terror shooting attack in the West Bank village of al-Funduq in January, was killed by Israeli forces near Jenin this morning, the military says.

Mohammed Zakarneh, from Qabatiya, was one of three gunmen who opened fire on civilians in al-Funduq, which straddles Route 55, a major east-west highway used by thousands of Israelis and Palestinian drivers daily.

The attack on January 6 killed off-duty police officer Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein and civilians Rachel Cohen and Aliza Raiz.

The IDF says that members of the police’s Yamam counterterrorism unit, along with IDF troops, attempted to arrest Zakarneh, who was hiding in a cave near the village of Misilyah this morning after the Shin Bet security agency provided intelligence on his whereabouts.

During the operation, the troops exchanged fire with Zakarneh and two other gunmen hiding in the cave, the military says. The forces fired shoulder-launched missiles amid the exchange.

Zakarneh and a second Islamic Jihad gunman from Qabatiya, Marouh Khazima, were killed. The IDF says Khazima had been released from Israeli jail in the November 2023 ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas and had been wanted for terror activity.

The military says troops found several weapons and other military equipment on their bodies. Several more terror operatives who were aiding the two were also detained, and they were found to be carrying handguns, the IDF adds.

The other two terrorists who carried out the al-Funduq shooting, Qutaiba al-Shalabi and Mohammed Nazal — members of Hamas — were killed by Israeli forces in Qabatiya on January 23.