Shin Bet security service arrests Fatah terror cell in Hebron
By Amos Harel, Jalal Bana and Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondents
Israeli security forces recently detained three members of a Hebron-based Fatah terror
cell. The suspects planned a number of terror strikes, including a car bomb attack near
Hebron's Cave of Patriarchs, Shin Bet security service officials said Tuesday.
The Shin Bet disclosure came on a day of relatively light violence on the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. One Palestinian woman was killed in Tul Karm Tuesday night, and Palestinian
Authority spokesman claimed that she was shot inside her home. No Israelis were hurt
Tuesday in gunfire incidents.
Interrogation of the three Hebron cell suspects has established that they planned to use a
car resembling vehicles used by the members of the observers' force in Hebron, called
the Temporary International Protection of Hebron (TIPH), and to park the car near the Cave
of Patriarchs. The cell members forged TIPH stickers for this purpose.
The suspects planned to detonate the car bomb at a moment when a large number of
Jewish worshipers were gathered at the Cave, the Shin Bet sources said. The cell
members also planned to perpetrate terror strikes within the Green Line, at sites such as
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and French Hill, the sources add.
The Israel Defense Forces Tuesday released information obtained by interrogating
Palestinians who were arrested during an operation in Beit Rima, a village near Ramallah,
on October 23. Five Palestinians were killed in the raid. The IDF claims that the suspects
from Beit Rima were involved in a number of gunfire attacks in the Ramallah area, including
an incident in which an Israeli driver was wounded near the Dir Abu-Meshal village, on
September 5.
Although the Beit Rima operation was carried out with the aim of seizing suspects from a
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine cell responsible for last month's assassination
of Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, three of the suspects belong to Fatah, and one is from the
PA's national security forces.
A Palestinian mother of five, Wafa Nasif, 29, was shot and killed Tuesday night by IDF
gunfire in Tul Karm. The shooting incident occurred near a post which the IDF set up
during its incursion into Palestinian-controlled "A" areas of the West Bank city. Palestinian
Authority officials claimed Tuesday night that Nasif was in her home when IDF bullets
mortally wounded her.
A large mine was detonated Tuesday in an attack against an IDF tank near the Kfar Darom
settlement in the Gaza Strip. Nobody was injured by the blast. After the explosion, IDF
soldiers briefly entered "A" areas in Dir al-Balah, in pursuit of suspects in the bomb attack.
No suspects were detained.
Shots were fired Tuesday at an Israeli truck in the Gilboa region, near Kibbutz Meirav;
nobody was injured in this attack. The truck driver reported that bullets were fired from a
white vehicle, which then fled in the direction of nearby Palestinian-controlled villages. The
Gilboa area has been the scene of a number of attacks in recent months.
While there were relatively few gunfire attacks in the territories Tuesday, incidents were
reported in Jenin, near Nablus and outside of Ramallah. |
