Major Passover terror attack thwarted

Four terrorists were arrested, including the murderer of 2015 victim Malachi Rosenfeld. 

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A major Passover eve attack was thwarted Wednesday when IDF troops captured a terrorist squad near Ramallah overnight.

In a combined operation with the Shin Bet, soldiers raided the villages of Silwad and Kobar and took four men into custody. They acted on an intelligence tip that a prisoner who had just escaped a Palestinian jail was planning to carry out an attack in Jerusalem on Friday, when the week-long holiday is set to begin after nightfall.

Mu’ad Hamed, one of the captured, was part of a cell of Hamas gunmen who fired at a car carrying four young Jewish men in 2015, murdering Kochav Hashachar resident Malachi Rosenfeld and injuring the other passengers. The Hamas operative, who hailed from Silwad, has been in Palestinian custody ever since.

The IDF intensified its anti-terrorist operations following the recent spate of deadly attacks carried out by Palestinian Arabs and Arab-Israelis in Tel Aviv, B’nei Brak, Holon and Beersheba. Security personnel are going on multiple raids every night, finding dozens of suspected terrorists and illegal weapons, which they say have foiled an average of two imminent attacks a day.

The army has dubbed its efforts to stop the rash of terror that recently killed 14 Israelis “Operation Wave Breaker.” Channel 12 News reported that 16 Palestinians have been killed so far during clashes that erupted during the missions as armed terrorists’ supporters try to thwart the arrests.

In a video on N12 of Wednesday’s raid, dozens of Palestinians can be seen pelting armored IDF jeeps and trucks with large rocks from close range as they speed by down a major road, with shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) heard on the tape. At one point, a young man leaps in front of one of the vehicles, forcing it to slow down so as not to hit him, allowing his gang an extra few seconds to try and do some damage with their projectiles.

Also on Wednesday, a large riot broke out when the Samaria Regional Council spent the day repairing Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, which Palestinians had damaged extensively earlier in the week by setting parts of it on fire and smashing the tomb itself.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, one attacker was killed and 17 wounded when they fired on IDF troops who were securing the restoration work.