The Shin Bet internal security agency announced on Monday that security forces arrested a 17 member terror cell in the West Bank
According to the agency, the cell members, who were active in promoting terrorist attacks under the guidance of a Hamas activist in the Gaza Strip, were arrested in a joint operation by the IDF, police and Shin Bet in November.
The investigation revealed that the man behind the cell was Abdallah Arar, a Hamas activist who had been involved in the 2005 abduction and murder of Jerusalem-resident Sasson Nuriel. Arar was deported to the Gaza Strip as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner-exchange deal.
According to the Shin Bet, Arar had instructed Alaa Salim, a resident of the West Bank village of Jab’a southwest of Bethlehem, to set up the cell and transferred him money to purchase an M16 rifle to carry out an attack as soon as possible.
In addition, Salim approached Rian Tuam, also a resident of Jab’a, and asked him to help purchase an M16 rifle, giving him thousands of shekels to do so. Expanding the cell, Salim asked a man named Sehada Tuam to recruit activists to join and recruited Mahmoud abu Arkov, a young Hamas operative from Al-Rahm.
“Recently there has been a growing motivation by Hamas headquarters in the Gaza Strip to carry out terror attacks through operatives in Judea and Samaria,” read the statement by the Shin Bet.
“The security forces will continue to act decisively to thwart Hamas’ efforts to carry out attacks in Israel, and make it clear that Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be responsible for any attack that they direct.”
The investigation into the cell is being conducted with the Military Prosecution which will examine all material before the suspects are indicted.
Since the beginning of the latest wave of violence to hit Israel and the West Bank, numerous Hamas attacks have been thwarted by security forces. In late December, Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman announced that the agency had thwarted over 400 terror attacks in 2017, including 13 suicide attacks and 8 kidnappings, as well as 1,100 potential lone wolf attacks.
He further noted that in 2017 only 54 attacks were successfully carried out in comparison with 108 attacks that were carried out in 2016.
Speaking to lawmakers during the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, Argaman warned that “the [period of] quiet we are experiencing is misleading; Hamas is hard at work trying to execute terrorist attacks.”
Article source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.811450
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