A Hamas operative planning an “imminent” terror attack was killed by special forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Saturday, the IDF, Shin Bet, and police announced.

Members of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit and the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit encircled a building in Tulkarem Saturday morning and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force a suspect to come out.

The IDF said the suspect, Islam Odeh, opened fire from the building and was eventually killed in an exchange of fire.

In the suspect’s car, the IDF said it found weapons, including parts to build a bomb.

According to the military, Odeh was a member of a Hamas network in Tulkarem and was involved in planning a major terror attack on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre with Hamas commander Zahi Oufi, who was killed in an airstrike earlier this month along with 11 other operatives and six civilians.

“After the assassination of Oufi, Odeh commanded and led the network and in recent days was planning more attacks,” the statement said.

Tulkarem is a major city in the northern West Bank, near the Green Line with Israel. The army says Tulkarem is a hotbed of terror activity, and has carried out numerous operations including airstrikes against operatives in the city over the course of the past year.

Since October 7, 2023, the IDF has carried out more than 70 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets. Israeli troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank over the past year, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 716 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 41 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.