Israel launches major operation in the West Bank and holds about 50 people

Cisjordan, Palestine, 21 Sep 2026 – The Israeli army today arrested several people in a major operation in a occupied West Bank city, where a Palestinian suspected of killing a Jewish colonist on Sunday, the Palestinian authorities advanced.

The colonist was shot to death near the Neve Tzouf settlement in the central part of the West Bank, and the suspect, wounded by gunshots while fleeing, was arrested after a search that lasted several hours.

Early this morning, “tens of military jeeps and hundreds of Israeli soldiers” entered the small town of Biddu, where the arrested suspect lived, said the mayor, Nazmi Mansour, in statements to the French news agency AFP.

“ The soldiers began to search the house [of the suspect] and set up improvised interrogation centers in buildings they took,” said the mayor of that city of about 8,000 inhabitants, located northwest of Jerusalem.

“Ten, perhaps hundreds of people were questioned. Some have been released, but others are still detained,” said the mayor, adding that the army blocked all access to the city.

The government of Jerusalem, the Palestinian regional authority, announced the arrest of about 50 people, but the total number is not yet known.

The head of the Israeli army, General Eyal Zamir, announced on Sunday night that his troops would carry out an operation in Biddu to find possible accomplices in the attack.

This attack took place in an unstable context, with the proximity of the legislative elections in Israel and the escalation of the violence of the settlers in the occupied West Bank, following the attacks of the Islamist Hamas group on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which started a war in Gaza.

According to an AFP count based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the army and settlers have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians between fighters and civilians since then.

According to Israeli data, in the same period almost 50 Israelis — civilians and members of the security forces — were killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.