Israeli forces arrest brother of Bnei Brak terrorist, other suspects

The suspect, 18, hails from the southern Bedouin town of Rahat.

By TPS and World Israel News

Israeli security forces operated in the Palestinian Authority (PA) town of Ya’bed in Samaria early Wednesday morning and arrested several suspects in connection with the terror attack in B’nei Brak in which terrorist, Dia’a Hamarsheh, shot and killed five victims.

The Israeli forces raided the Hamarsheh home and arrested the terrorist’s brother and several of his relatives.

The IDF and the Shin Bet are investigating whether the terrorist’s relatives or friends were aware of his plans and assisted him. They are also investigating how he obtained the weapon he used in the attack, possibly provided to him by terrorists inside Israel.

Other reports say that IDF forces arrested two of the terrorist’s relatives in Jenin, both released prisoners. According to Arab reports, one of the detainees is Adnan Hamarsheh, who has previously served prison sentences in Israel for terrorist activities. His son, Amar Hamarsheh, a released terrorist, was also arrested.

IDF forces carried out counterterrorism operations throughout Judea and Samaria on Tuesday night in the Balata refugee camp in Shechem (Nablus), Bethlehem, the village of Kadum, Ramallah, and the villages south of Bethlehem.

One of the detainees is Hussein Abiyat, the son of Atef Abiyat, a senior terrorist from Bethlehem who was killed by the IDF while on his way to carry out an attack in 2001 during the Second Intifada.

Similarly, the Border Police and the Shin Bet operated in the areas of Wadi Ara and Nazareth on Tuesday and arrested five suspects following the terror attack in Hadera on Sunday night, in which two Islamist terrorists shot and killed two Border Police troops.

In an IDF situational assessment, it was decided to deploy additional troops to the area of Judea and Samaria.

The IDF and the Shin Bet have arrested some 600 terror suspects since the beginning of 2022.

The country’s security establishment is bracing for violence, especially as Ramadan coincides with Passover, and following the first anniversary of Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021, which was launched by the IDF following a Hamas rocket attack on Jerusalem that began at the height of the Month of Ramadan.

“The Israel Police and the General Security Service take very seriously any involvement or affiliation of Israeli citizens in terrorist activities and will continue to work to investigate the truth while prosecuting those who seek to harm the security of the state’s citizens and security forces,” said a police spokesperson.

On Tuesday, police arrested a dozen suspects in northern Israel on similar charges, including several from Umm Al-Fahm, the hometown of the two cousins who carried out Sunday’s terror attack in Hadera in which two off-duty Border Police officers were killed and a dozen others were wounded at a bus stop.

The cousins had sworn allegiance to ISIS in a video posted online, and the Islamist extremist group was quick to claim responsibility for the work of their “commandos.”

The police went in high gear in search of ISIS supporters following last Tuesday’s attack in Beersheba by a Bedouin-Israeli who lived in the nearby town of Hura. Muhammad Abu Al-Kiyan, who killed four and injured two in a mixed car-ramming and stabbing attack, had spent four years in Israeli prison for spreading ISIS propaganda, inciting terrorism and attempting to reach Syria to fight with the group there.

On Friday, a 23-year-old man was arrested in Tel Sheva, a Bedouin town also right next to Beersheba, on suspicion of identifying with ISIS and inciting terrorism. The police said that there was no connection between him and Al-Kiyan but that his detention had been “urgent.”

Arab terrorISISIslamic terrorJudea and SamariaPalestinian terrorRamadan