Israeli special forces shot dead a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander during an overnight raid in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, while Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, made a high-profile visit to Jerusalem’s contested Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Lt. Gen. Rayeq Abdulrahman Basharat, a former prisoner long sought by Israel, was killed when undercover units entered the town of Tammun, south of Tubas, before dawn, Palestinian officials said. Israeli forces seized his body and arrested eight men in follow-up house searches, including Murad Abu Hasib, whom Israel lists as a wanted militant. Two of the detainees were wounded in exchanges of fire, and a Palestinian Red Crescent medic was hit by shrapnel while trying to reach the scene, the relief agency said.
Hours earlier, troops ended a 28-hour operation in nearby Nablus that left two Palestinians dead and more than 80 injured after raids on hundreds of homes in the city’s Old City quarter, according to local health officials. Since Israel launched “Operation Iron Wall” in January, raids have swept towns and refugee camps across the northern West Bank, killing dozens and arresting scores amid almost nightly clashes.
In a separate development, Ben-Gvir — already under fresh sanctions from several Western governments — entered the Al-Aqsa compound with party allies and a heavy police escort, the Islamic Waqf that administers the site said. Palestinians and Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, accused him of seeking to upend the decades-old status quo that bars non-Muslim worship there.
The latest raid and the minister’s visit came against the backdrop of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said 150 Palestinians were detained across the territory in the past week alone, with home demolitions continuing in Ramallah and Salfit after Israel declared the structures lacked permits.