Members of a cell headed by a top terror leader in the West Bank who were planning an “imminent attack” were killed in a drone strike overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.
The IDF said Abdallah Abu Shalal was targeted in the strike near the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, in a joint operation between the military and the Shin Bet internal security service.
“The cell was eliminated from the air following information received by the Shin Bet regarding the intentions of Abdallah and the cell to carry out an imminent terror attack,” the IDF said in a statement.
Hebrew-language media reported that the attack was to be carried out “in a large Israeli city.”
The army said Abu Shalal had received financing and instructions from Iran, as well as terror groups in Gaza and overseas.
Palestinian reports said three people were killed in the strike. The other members of the cell were not immediately identified.
The military said Abu Shalal was responsible for a string of recent attacks, including a shooting attack last April in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in which two Israelis were injured, and the planting of a bomb in October that wounded a soldier.
The military said that after the strike on the terror cell, weapons were found in the car in which they were traveling, including an M16 rifle, handguns and ammunition.
The Ynet news site said that there was also evidence of explosives found at the scene.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since Hamas’s October 7 massacre. In response to the deadliest attack in the country’s history, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, where the terror group has ruled since 2007, and secure the release of the hostages seized that day.
On Monday, two West Bank Palestinians killed an elderly woman and injured 17 people, including at least seven children and teenagers, in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in the central city of Ra’anana.
During the attack, the perpetrators — residents of the southern West Bank town of Bani Naim, close to Hebron who were working in Israel illegally — seized three vehicles and rammed pedestrians in several locations in the city, also stabbing one or more of their victims, according to police, medics and eyewitnesses.
Since October 7, troops have arrested more than 2,650 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,300 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 300 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. Based on military estimates, the vast majority of those killed since October 7 were shot during clashes amid arrest raids.
Security chiefs have warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times in recent days that the West Bank is on the brink of a major eruption in violence, Israeli television reported last week.
According to Channel 12 news, the warnings were relayed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other senior military commanders, who said Israel risked a new front in the West Bank amid the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes on the northern border with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Besides Netanyahu, the report said the other members of the war cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz — were also warned of the prospect of major unrest in the West Bank.
The heightened concern comes on the heels of Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues from the PA in addition to refusing to allow some 150,000 Palestinian workers to return to their jobs in Israel and the settlements.
Netanyahu has reportedly refused to hold security cabinet votes to reverse both decisions, due to pressure from his far-right coalition partners, who wish to weaken the PA.