An Israeli soldier detains a Palestinian during a raid in the Palestinian town of Beddu, northwest of Jerusalem, Sept. 21, 2026 — the day after the arrest of a man suspected of killing an Israeli identified as a settler, according to the Israeli army. (Credit: Zain Jaafar/AFP)
Israeli forces on Monday raided the hometown of a Palestinian man suspected of shooting dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank the day before, local authorities said.
Sunday's shooting occurred near the Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf, north of Ramallah, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Soldiers apprehended the suspected shooter after locating him at a hospital.
Israel's military told AFP on Sunday that its troops had raided the home of the attacker's family in the Palestinian village of Biddu, northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
The Jerusalem Governorate, the Palestinian local authority for the area, said Israeli forces then raided Biddu at dawn Monday and "carried out a large-scale arrest campaign targeting dozens of young men."
"The raid was accompanied by searches, vandalism, and the smashing of property inside a number of homes, as well as physical assaults on several residents," it said, adding that the raid was ongoing.
Asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it was checking the reports.
An AFP photographer saw Israeli forces in the town Monday morning.
Biddu's mayor, Nazmi Mansour, told AFP that the military had stormed the town after midnight with "dozens of military jeeps and hundreds of soldiers."
"The soldiers began house-to-house searches and set up field interrogation centers in buildings they had taken control of," he said, adding that dozens of people were questioned.
"The army is still present in the town and has closed off its entrances, and all commercial shops are shut," he told AFP by telephone.
Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said at the site of the attack Sunday that the military remained "on high alert."
"We will impose a closure on the village and conduct investigations, through which we will reach everyone who assisted the terrorist," Zamir said.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for the attacker to be the first person executed under a recently approved death penalty law.
The new law imposes the death penalty by default on Palestinians from the West Bank convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has surged since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked Israel's years-long military assault on Gaza.
