Israel Defense Forces troops came under heavy fire in the West Bank on Sunday night while mapping a house of Palestinian brothers suspected of carrying out a shooting attack last week that left one Israeli dead.
The brothers are suspected of killing Yehuda Dimantman, 22, on Thursday when the car he was in was ambushed near the illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh as he was making his way from a yeshiva to his home in the settlement of Shavei Shomron. Two other people were lightly hurt in the attack.
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Israeli troops at the scene of the attack in Horesh
(Photo: The IDF Spokesperson's Unit )
According to the military, the troops who entered the Arab village Silat al-Khartia, came under heavy gunfire and also had explosives thrown at them.
The mapping was done to examine the possibility of demolishing the house, as part of Israel's policy which serves as a means of deterrence for potential terrorists plotting future attacks.
The IDF said the soldiers fired back at the shooters and none of the soldiers were hurt. The military added that a riot broke out at the scene, in which dozens of Palestinians threw stones at the troops, who had to respond by using riot control measures.
Alleged terrorists involved in the murderous attack were arrested on Saturday night without resistance or gunfire, in a collaborative operation including the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit of the Israel Border Police.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was present in the command center overseeing the joint operation, and congratulated the security forces, and said: "Every terrorist should know he's on borrowed time."
The IDF informed that in total, six or seven suspects were arrested, including two or three men who assisted the shooters. The Shin Bet said that the weapons used by the terrorists to carry out the shooting were also captured - two M16 rifles and one Carlo - which is an improvised submachine gun manufactured by small workshops in the Palestinian Territories.
IDF spokesperson, Gen. Ran (Ranko) Kochav, said after the arrest that "this is a joint technological-intelligence operation which reached a rapid closure and included a lot of different security forces who worked together under winter weather. I hope their arrest and investigation will thwart further attacks." The operation is another message for terrorist organizations that Israel will reach any terrorist anywhere."