Israeli security sources strongly believe that a terrorist squad of Hamas is responsible for the attack near Ofra and other terrorist attacks in the Ramallah area.
Hamas is trying to ignite the West Bank through terror attacks by "sleeper cells" and to exploit the fact that the IDF is busy on two fronts in the north and south.
The shooting attack near the Ofra settlement in the Ramallah area was a very serious incident. The attack was carried out by a passing vehicle towards Tramipada, which resulted in the injury of seven Israeli civilians, one of whom was in advanced pregnancy.
According to security sources, this is a terrorist squad that has already carried out shooting attacks in the area, such as the shooting attack on a bus in the Beit El area a month and a half ago, apparently belonging to Hamas.
IDF forces are operating in Palestinian villages in the vicinity of the attack in an attempt to locate the terrorist cell, especially in the village of Silwad near Ofra.
In this village senior Hamas figures have grown up, such as Khaled Mash'al, who was the head of Hamas' political bureau, and Ibrahim Hamed, who was imprisoned in Israel and who was the head of the military wing of Hamas and responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israeli civilians and the wounding of hundreds of others.
The Hamed clan in the village of Silwad is identified with Hamas and the security forces are expected to hold arrests in the village.
Security officials gathered photographs from security cameras in the area and Hamas, which through its social networks urged its operatives to sabotage security cameras to sabotage the investigation of Israeli security forces.
At the same time as the hunt for the terrorist cell in the Ramallah area, the IDF continues the hunt for terrorist Ashraf Nalwa from the village of Shweika near Tulkarm, which carried out the murderous attack in the industrial zone of Barkan two months ago.
Hamas has long praised the terrorist and adopted him in his lap as a symbol of "resistance" in the West Bank and as someone who succeeds in fooling Israel's security forces.
It is also possible that the terrorist Ashraf Na'alwa belongs to a terrorist cell operating in Samaria. The fact that he has been hiding for more than 60 days without being caught indicates that he is receiving assistance from local sources who supplied him with the weapons in which he carried out the attack.
Hamas issued a statement in which he praised the attack near the settlement of Ofra, in a statement said that the attack proves that the "resistance" made hacking security, and that "the West is leading the initiative resisting the occupation and the response to the attacks on the Palestinians and it shows that opposition exists despite continuing attempts to uproot it" .
Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman warned last month at a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the quiet in Judea and Samaria is misleading and that the security reality in which he is composed is complex.
He stressed that Hamas was trying with all its might to carry out terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria, saying that the ISA had arrested 219 Hamas cells and thwarted 480 attacks.
Indeed, according to Hamas leaders' statements, indirect contacts with Israel via Egyptian intelligence on the calm in the Gaza Strip do not include the cessation of terror in the West Bank.
As far as Hamas is concerned, this is an "occupied" area where terrorism is legitimate against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Sources in Hamas say that Israel is currently engaged on two fronts, in the south and the north, and this is the time to set fire to the West Bank in order to harm Israel and at the same time try to disrupt the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
In addition, the "burning" of the West Bank serves the Iranian-Hamas goal of torpedoing President Trump's "Deal of the Century", which he is expected to announce in two months time.
Hamas is closely following Operation Northern Shield to locate Hezbollah tunnels and the possibility of escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
It is impossible to rule out the possibility that it was Hizbollah that asked its Hamas ally, Hamas, to set fire to the West Bank following the exposure of its terrorist tunnels.
The head of the military wing of Hamas in the West Bank is Salah al-'Aruri, deputy chairman of the political bureau, who is also the contact person for Hezbollah and Iran.
Al-'Aruri is located in the Hezbollah stronghold in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut and is responsible for all the attacks that have taken place in the West Bank in recent years.
The operation of Hamas' "dormant cells" in the West Bank and the recruitment of new terrorists into its military wing is carried out through the "West Bank headquarters" operating from the Gaza Strip and through the military wing office in Istanbul, Turkey.
These offices are operated by terrorists who were released in the 2011 Shalit deal and deported to the Gaza Strip and abroad. These are residents of the West Bank who are well acquainted with the area and who have extensive family and social ties that they use to recruit and carry out attacks against Israel.