Israeli forces have killed 18 members of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters — a unit based in the Gaza Strip that is responsible for advancing terror attacks against Israel from and within the West Bank — amid the ongoing war, the Shin Bet security agency announced on Friday.
Among those killed was Yassin Rabia, the head of the unit. Rabia was killed alongside another top member of the headquarters in a strike in Rafah earlier this week. The strike was also said to have killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in a blaze caused by a secondary explosion.
An IDF probe into the strike found that a hidden store of weapons may have been the actual cause of the deadly blaze, and that an airstrike that targeted an adjacent area had used small munitions that would not ignite such a fire on their own.
Another nine members of the unit have been detained by troops in the Gaza Strip, the Shin Bet added.
The agency said the unit is primarily made up of Hamas members who were exiled to Gaza in a 2011 deal with Hamas, in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian terror convicts in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Members of the unit make contact with West Bank Palestinians in order to recruit them to carry out terror attacks in the territory and in Israel proper, the Shin Bet said.
Among those detained by troops in November was Mahmoud Bashir Tanira, who the Shin Bet said is a member of a West Bank headquarters unit involved in directing attacks.
The Shin Bet said Tanira’s interrogation revealed that the unit was involved in numerous terror attacks in the West Bank between 2022 and 2023, which resulted in the deaths of eight Israelis and the injury of others.
According to the Shin Bet, among the attacks directed by the unit were a shooting against the settlement of Beit El in October 2022, in which an Israeli civilian was wounded; a shooting at a gas station near Eli in June 2023, in which four Israeli civilians were killed and two were injured; a shooting near the settlement of Kedumim in July 2023, in which a soldier was killed; a shooting at a car wash in Huwara in August 2023, in which two Israeli civilians were killed; a shooting at the Hamra junction in August 2023, in which an Israeli civilian was wounded; and a shooting near Hebron in August 2023 in which an Israeli civilian was killed.
According to the Shin Bet, the unit was involved in at least 20 more shooting attacks in the West Bank last year.
The announcement came amid simmering tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank amid the ongoing war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw thousands of terrorists kill some 1,200 people and seize 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,700 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 510 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.