Israeli troops arrested scores of Hamas terrorists as part of a campaign to thwart attacks planned during the Jewish high holidays.
By Ezra Stone, United with Israel
The IDF launched a massive series of raids on Tuesday, arresting more than 50 members of the Hamas terror group operating in Judea and Samaria.
The counter-terror campaign was the largest such operation since 2014, The Algemeiner reported.
The IDF carried out most of the arrests near Bethlehem and Hebron, according to a Channel 13 report. The operation was described as part of a strategy to thwart terror attacks designed to harm Israelis during the Jewish high holidays, which begin next week.
Arab-controlled areas within Judea and Samaria, such as Bethlehem and most of Hebron, are overseen by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is embroiled in a violent decade-plus feud with the Hamas terror group.
Hamas ran the PA out of Gaza in 2007, when it launched a bloody coup. While PA leader Mahmoud Abbas cannot set foot in Gaza for fear of being assassinated by rival Palestinian factions, Hamas bankrolls and controls terror cells in PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.
These Hamas cells not only carry out murderous attacks on Israeli civilians, they are also intent on undermining the PA’s waning authority.
Palestinians are also members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, which vies for Iranian funding with its rivals in Hamas.