A top Border Police officer critically injured during a battle with Palestinian gunmen during a raid in the West Bank over the weekend succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday, authorities said.
He was named by police as Chief Inspector Yitav Lev Halevi, 28, a commander in the elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit.
Halevi was wounded during an operation in the West Bank town of Dayr al-Ghusun, near Tulkarem, on May 4.
Halevi was taken to Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where he was listed in critical condition.
“After four days in which the medical teams at Beilinson fought for the life of the Yamam soldier, who arrived at the hospital with a critical head injury, this morning the doctors had no choice but to declare [his] death,” the hospital said.
Halevi is the son of former Jerusalem District chief Deputy Commissioner (ret.) Yoram Halevi.
Five Palestinian gunmen, members of a Hamas cell responsible for the murder of an Israeli and the injury of others in recent terror attacks in the West Bank, were killed amid the raid carried out by Border Police and the Israel Defense Forces.
The terror cell was planning additional attacks including bombings, the military said at the time.
After coming under fire from the building, troops carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.
Armored bulldozers demolished part of the building, troops fired several shoulder-launched missiles at the structure, and a Hermes 450 drone carried out two airstrikes, according to the IDF.
Troops also seized several weapons amid the raid, the military added.
According to the military, the terrorists had carried out a deadly shooting attack near the West Bank town of Bayt Lid on November 2, killing off-duty IDF reservist Sgt. First Class (res.) Elhanan Klein.
In another attack, on April 7, members of the cell carried out a shooting attack and attempted car bombing on the Route 55 highway, wounding two Israelis, including an off-duty soldier on a bus.
Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before October 7 — when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and abduct 252 — has escalated throughout the war sparked by the onslaught, with frequent army raids on terror groups, deadly Palestinian attacks, and rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, at times also deadly.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,700 affiliated with Hamas, the IDF has said.
According to the PA health ministry, more than 490 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed amid raids or terrorists carrying out attacks.