Members of a Palestinian terror cell arrested last month near Ramallah attempted to develop and launch rockets from the West Bank at the start of the war in Gaza, according to new details obtained by Ynet.
The investigation revealed that the group successfully fired one homemade rocket about two kilometers and invested roughly 250,000 shekels ($75,000) in weapons and equipment to establish a rudimentary rocket capability.
The cell’s leader, identified as Abdullah al-Khatib, told interrogators he intended to launch rockets toward Tel Aviv “to stop the war.” His efforts drew the close attention of the IDF's Central Command, the Shin Bet security agency and police, who considered the emergence of a rocket threat from the West Bank a major potential escalation.
Security forces captured the suspects after a covert investigation and located hidden launch sites and storage areas for the rockets. In total, troops uncovered about 15 projectiles ready for launch in the Ramallah area, along with a makeshift explosives lab.
Explosive-laden drone over a farm near the settlement of Sde Ephraim in the Binyamin region
According to the investigation, al-Khatib began experimenting with drones and explosives immediately after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre. Three days after the start of the war, he launched a drone carrying an explosive device over a farm near the settlement of Sde Ephraim in the Binyamin region. Surveillance footage showed the device exploding above the site, though there were no casualties.
Al-Khatib later recruited his brother and a friend, raising funds from their businesses to continue his efforts. He reportedly learned bomb-making and rocket design techniques from YouTube videos and carried out several small-scale tests.
Rocket cahce found by Israeli forces near Ramallah
(Video: Israel Police)
At one stage, he instructed his brother and friend to conduct a rocket test targeting the ultra-Orthodox city of Modi’in Illit in the Binyamin region, using a cellphone timer to activate the launch. The rockets failed to fire due to what al-Khatib described as a “technical malfunction.” The pair then attempted to erase evidence by cleaning the vehicle used to transport the rockets and launchers.
Video published by Ynet last month showed a separate successful test in which the cell fired a rocket from the Palestinian village of Ni’ama toward the nearby community of Beit Ur al-Tahta, near Route 443.
The IDF said an explosives lab was found in an apartment used as a hideout, equipped for producing additional rockets.