Israeli forces raid two West Bank charities, arresting five over alleged terror links

Israeli troops and the Shin Bet security service carried out raids on two Palestinian charities in the West Bank that Israel accuses of acting on behalf of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the military said in a joint statement. According to the IDF spokesperson, the targeted operations took place in Ramallah and Yatta, and the organisations involved functioned as offices for the two armed groups rather than as genuine charities.

Five people the army describes as operatives cooperating with Hamas and the PFLP were detained. Joe Truzman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) summarised the announcement, noting that forces also took computers, documents, checks and other material that Israel alleges is connected to Hamas financing. The Jerusalem Post reported the raids under a headline saying terror funds were seized, and published an army photograph it captioned as showing the raid on the Addameer offices in Ramallah on October 13, 2026.

The two organisations named

The army identified the Ramallah target as the Addameer Charity Association. In a post on X, the IDF said the group receives money from terror sources and gives legal help to PFLP members who are in Israeli prisons. The military placed the word charities in quotation marks throughout its statement, signalling that it does not regard the groups as legitimate aid bodies.

The second target was in Yatta. Truzman identified it as the Islamic Association for the Care of Orphans and wrote that Israel accuses it of moving funds, though the portion of his post available to us is cut off before the full allegation is stated. The army's own posts, as received, are also truncated before they finish describing the Yatta group.

Who carried out the raids

The operations were a joint effort between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA), the domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism service better known as the Shin Bet, or by its Hebrew acronym Shabak. The Shin Bet is responsible for intelligence on Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank and typically works alongside the army on arrest operations there. Joint statements of this kind usually reflect an operation that the Shin Bet developed through intelligence and the army executed on the ground.

Where the raids took place

Israeli official statements refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for the region; international bodies and most foreign media use the term West Bank. Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem, and is where the Palestinian Authority has its administrative headquarters. Yatta is a large Palestinian town in the southern West Bank, south of Hebron.

The groups Israel links to the charities

Hamas is the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip and also maintains networks in the West Bank. The PFLP is a secular, left-wing Palestinian faction with an armed wing. Israel, the United States and the European Union classify both as terrorist organisations. Israeli authorities have long argued that armed groups use charities, welfare associations and civil society bodies to raise and move money and to support members and their families, and raids on such organisations in the West Bank are a recurring part of Israeli security policy.

How the accounts differ

The reports agree on the basic outline: two raids, two locations, five arrests, and allegations tying the organisations to Hamas and the PFLP. They differ in how they describe what was seized. The Jerusalem Post headline refers to terror funds being taken. Truzman's summary itemises seized computers, paperwork and checks, along with items Israel says relate to financing Hamas, and does not say cash was seized. The army statements available to us do not settle the question. All of the allegations about the organisations' activities come from the IDF and the Shin Bet; none of the reports presents independent evidence for them.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports names the five people detained, says what they are suspected of individually, or states whether they have been charged. No amount of money is given for any funds alleged to have been seized or transferred. The reports do not include any response from Addameer, the Yatta association, the Palestinian Authority, or the people arrested. The army statements as received end mid-sentence, so the full description of the Yatta organisation's alleged role is not available. It is also not stated whether the organisations' offices were closed or whether further action against them is planned.