Police: 25-year-old from Jenin detained for allegedly attacking Israeli with a hoe
Man in his 60s said lightly wounded after assault in backyard of his West Bank-adjacent home, as IDF counterterrorism operation rages on across security barrier
A Palestinian from the West Bank city of Jenin was detained Saturday for allegedly attacking an Israeli man in the northern community of Gan Ner on Friday, police and the Shin Bet said.
The suspect, a 25-year-old resident of Jenin, was captured Saturday morning while hiding in a horse stable in a nearby community, police said.
The victim, an Israeli man in his 60s, was hit in the head with a hoe in his backyard, sustaining light wounds, according to medics.
The attacker was initially thought to have been Israeli, but further investigation indicated he was a Palestinian from the West Bank, police said.
Channel 12 quoted the victim’s wife as saying the attacker stood outside the door of their balcony.
“It’s very concerning when you’re certain that the town is secured, and suddenly it happens in the most sensitive place, the entrance to your house,” she said. “My husband struggled with him, tried to protect himself… we just felt powerless, not knowing how to act.”
Gan Ner, which is not in the West Bank, stands near the territory’s northern security barrier — close to Jenin, where the IDF last month launched a counterterrorism operation dubbed “Iron Wall.” The operation has since been expanded to other areas of the West Bank.
On Thursday, the IDF said it had killed over 60 Palestinian terror operatives and detained more than 210 in the ongoing operation.
Violence has spiked in the West Bank since the war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
In that time, according to the IDF, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry says more than 900 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during the war in Gaza. The IDF says the vast majority were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
In the same period, 48 people, including 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 with terror operatives in the West Bank.
