Operation Break the Wave continues with the arrest of Palestinian fugitives and seizure of weapons.
By World Israel News Staff
Israeli security forces arrested four men over the weekend and seized illegal weapons in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, as part of an ongoing operation aimed at curbing Palestinian terror.
Operation Break the Wave was launched after a spate of deadly terror attacks between March-May 2022, which saw 17 Israelis and two foreign nationals killed. A number of other Palestinian terror attacks were foiled by Israeli security services during that time.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a joint operation involving the IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police saw the arrest of two men wanted on terror charges near Hebron, Walla News reported.
Several weapons, including an M-16 machine gun, were seized during a raid in an Arab municipality near Hebron.
Also early Sunday morning, a 24-year-old Palestinian woman was arrested at a checkpoint near Jerusalem after charging soldiers with a knife.
The woman approached the Givat Ze’ev checkpoint while brandishing a knife. According to Hebrew language media reports, she tossed the knife away and surrendered after soldiers fired warning shots in the air.
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers arrested a recently released prisoner, who had served time for terror offenses, in Bir al-Basha, south of Jenin.
Terrorists from the Jenin area carried out shooting attacks in Tel Aviv and Bnei Brak in recent months.
On Thursday evening, a Palestinian man armed with a homemade submachine gun and several pipe bombs was arrested in the central Israel city of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.
The man, who was acting suspiciously and dressed in all black, had caught the attention of local police officers.
The 19-year-old, who is from Nablus and had entered Israel illegally, admitted to police that he had planned a “large-scale” terror attack in Tel Aviv.
“He was looking to commit a massacre,” Police Chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters in a press conference after the arrest.
“We were in Jaffa, we identified a suspicious person, stopped him and while we were checking him he admitted that he was in Israel illegally, didn’t have any papers or ID,” Sharif Hasson, one of the police officers who nabbed the terrorist, told media.
“He had a bag, and there was something metal poking out. The bag was heavy, really heavy. While checking the bag we saw it was a gun. We told the guy to get on the floor, that he was under arrest.”