JERUSALEM – A senior Hamas terrorist was arrested by Israeli forces yesterday in an overnight raid on the de facto Palestinian Arab capital, Ramallah.

Israeli security sources said Ibrahim Hamed, 41, was a senior commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and claimed he was responsible for the deaths of 78 Israelis in a series of suicide bomb attacks.

It is unclear whether the arrest will provoke a military response from Hamas. The Islamist group has largely observed a cease-fire against Israel since January 2005.

Israel said the operation ended an eight-year manhunt for Mr. Hamed.

Acting on a tip-off, a combined force of Israeli police, army, and Shin Bet intelligence officers, drove into Ramallah and surrounded a block of buildings in the al-Balua district.

Using a loud hailer, a voice shouted for Mr.Hamed to give himself up. Initially he did not, so the Israelis opened fire and sent in an armored bulldozer. Mr. Hamed came out of the building, was forced to strip to his underwear and was arrested.

Then other soldiers entered the building and blew out the doors and windows, as a remote-controlled drone searched for explosives.

The Israeli army colonel who led the operation said Hamas would have trouble replacing Mr. Hamed. “What made him special was his creativity in finding very complex ways to attack Israelis,” the colonel told Israeli Army Radio.

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the arrest would not dent the group’s capabilities.

“He [Hamed] will neither be the first nor the last resistance leader to be arrested or martyred,” Mr. Zuhri said. [A key aide to Iraq’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, has been arrested in Jordan, according to a BBC report. Security officials refused to name the man. Jordanian TV said the suspect was wanted for murder, kidnapping and robberies.]