Palestinians react after Israeli forces prevented them from accessing their olive trees in the village of Sa'ir, in the occupied West Bank, on Oct. 23, 2025. (Credit: John Wessel/AFP)
Israeli forces announced on Tuesday that they had killed three Palestinians, described as members of a “terror cell,” during a police and military raid in the village of Kafr Qud, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
“In an offensive operation conducted by the Yamam counter-terrorism unit, forces acted to neutralize a terror cell planning an attack, linked to an active terrorist organization in the Jenin refugee camp,” said an Israeli police statement.
The forces reportedly spotted the cell members emerging from a cave, after which Yamam snipers opened fire, killing three individuals. The Israeli military said it then carried out airstrikes to destroy the cave hideout.
A joint statement from the Israeli army and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said two were killed immediately, one wounded, and a final militant later neutralized by airstrikes.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah identified the three men, all in their twenties, as Abdullah Mohammed Omar Jalamneh, Qais Ibrahim Mohammed al-Beitawi, and Ahmed Azmi Aref Nashrati.
AFP images showed Palestinian firefighters extinguishing flames on burned-out cars and nearby olive trees near the cave entrance, with mattresses and personal belongings scattered around.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the raid as having foiled a “serious terror threat” and warned that any attempt to rebuild “terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria” would be “crushed with an iron hand.”
He added that the army would maintain a presence in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nour Shams refugee camps to prevent terrorism.
Last winter, shortly after a previous Gaza truce, the Israeli military launched a major operation in these northern West Bank refugee camps, displacing tens of thousands and demolishing dozens of buildings to curb armed Palestinian groups.
Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the start of the war triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. A cease-fire has been in place in Gaza since Oct. 10.
Since then, at least 988 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, while at least 43 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, according to Israeli official figures.
