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According to a report by The Times of Israel on Sunday, June 21, 2026, the Shin Bet security agency said it had foiled dozens of planned terror attacks in the West Bank that were directed by Hamas operatives based in Turkey over the past year.
The agency said the operations were linked to Hamas’s so-called West Bank Headquarters, a unit within the terror group responsible for advancing attacks against Israel from or in the West Bank.
In a statement, the Shin Bet identified several Turkey-based Hamas operatives whom it accused of being involved in efforts to organise attacks, recruit operatives, and transfer weapons and funds into the West Bank.
“Over the years, and with increased intensity over the past year, operatives in the West Bank Headquarters have been directing and advancing extensive military activity into Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and Israel from Turkish soil, including recruiting operatives to carry out attacks and transferring weapons and funds into the area to advance military activity,” the agency said.
The Shin Bet named Istanbul-based senior Hamas official Zaher Jabarin as the head of Hamas’s West Bank activity, while Ayman Abu Khalil was identified as heading the group’s military wing in the territory.
The agency also listed other operatives it said were residing in Turkey and operating under Hamas’s West Bank Headquarters.
Among those named were Ayman Sharawna, who the Shin Bet said worked to recruit operatives; Muhammad Mallah, who also spends part of his time in Qatar and was accused of working to transfer funds for terror activity; Majed Jaaba, who was accused of assisting in providing the weapon used in a November 2023 shooting attack at a Jerusalem-area checkpoint.
The list also included Walid Abu Nassar, who the Shin Bet said financed a Hamas network in Bethlehem, and Salam Yaish, who was accused of recruiting operatives to carry out attacks.
The security agency said the Hamas operatives “carry out their activities unhindered from Turkish territory” and use “infrastructure in the country to transfer instructions and funds” to terrorists in the West Bank.
The Shin Bet’s statement detailed its claims regarding Hamas’s efforts to advance military activity through operatives located outside the West Bank, focusing on the alleged role of the group’s West Bank Headquarters in directing activities from Turkey.
