JERUSALEM, Nov 25, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Israel's armed forces announced late Monday that its personnel had killed a man they held responsible for a ramming attack in the occupied West Bank last year.

"After a pursuit of a year and a half", the officers killed Ala Raouf Shetiyya, Israel's army, police, intelligence and counterterrorism forces said in a joint statement.

"The terrorist carried out a ramming attack at an entrance to Nablus on May 29, 2024, in which two soldiers from the 90th Battalion were killed," the statement added.

During the operation, the forces determined that the man, who had barricaded himself inside a building, was armed. The forces opened fire and also arrested several "collaborators".

Witnesses told AFP they saw a lot of blood but no body at the house attacked by Israeli soldiers in eastern Nablus.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.

It has not ceased despite the fragile truce in effect in Gaza since October 10.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians -- many of them militants, but also scores of civilians -- in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

At least 44 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.