IDF, Shin Bet raid two West Bank charities they say were fronts for terror groups

The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said on Wednesday that they had cracked down recently on ostensible charities based in the West Bank, which they said were actually raising funds for terrorist organizations.

In a joint statement, the security bodies said that two targeted operations were carried out in Ramallah and Yatta in the West Bank, and five people were arrested for raising money on behalf of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Security forces raided the Ramallah offices of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association on Tuesday, the statement said, seizing computers, documents and checkbooks.

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Promoted: JPPI, Bret Stephens 

Addameer, a nongovernmental organization that was founded in 1991, provides free legal services to Palestinian political prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody and monitors the conditions of their confinement.

The IDF and Shin Bet said the organization provides legal assistance to terrorists, including those responsible for the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in 2019.

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Forces also recently raided the office in Yatta of the Islamic Society for Orphans Welfare, the IDF and Shin Bet said, adding that officers arrested individuals and confiscated items “bearing markings associated with designated Hamas funds.”

The IDF and Shin Bet accused the organization of transferring funds to Hamas and supporting the families of Hamas terrorists and prisoners.

Israel has carried out numerous raids against Palestinian organizations accused of working with or financing terror groups.

Ongoing settler attacks

Meanwhile, Palestinian media outlets reported earlier on Wednesday that settlers set fire to a mosque and a car in the village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

Footage from the scene showed damage to the mosque’s entrance.

There were no reports of injuries.

????مستوطنون إسرائيليون يحرقون مسجدًا ومركبة وشجرة زيتون خلال هجومهم على قرية مخماس شمال شرق القدس المحتلة – وسائل إعلام فلسطينية pic.twitter.com/XJZofXrpAO

— Sputnik Arabic (@sputnik_ar) October 14, 2026

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday there was a possibility of a security escalation “across all fronts,” and added that settler violence against Palestinians must be “eradicated using every tool available to the State of Israel.”

Zamir’s comments came as he visited the Central Command headquarters alongside its head, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.

Zamir noted that the 98th Division has been deployed to the West Bank to boost the IDF presence there.

“During this sensitive period, we must maintain vigilance and readiness on every front, preserve freedom of action and thwart threats quickly,” the IDF chief said. “We are pursuing and fighting terrorism everywhere. The IDF is at a high level of readiness to transition to broad offensive operations against any party that attempts to harm Israeli civilians.”

Zamir noted that the “sensitive period” included the ongoing olive harvest, which is often a time of heightened settler violence against Palestinian farmers.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.

More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 67 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.

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