Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah attempted to assassinate former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in failed Rosh Hashanah bombing attack in Tel Aviv.
By World Israel News Staff
A terrorist cell operated by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization in Lebanon attempted to assassinate a former Israeli Defense Minister and ex-IDF chief of staff in a bombing attack during the Rosh Hashanah holiday last year, Israeli police revealed on Wednesday.
The plot targeted Moshe Ya’alon, chief of the IDF General Staff from 2002 to 2005, who later entered politics on the Likud ticket, serving as Defense Minister before bolting the party and joining Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.
According to police, Hezbollah terrorists operating out of Lebanon directed a nine-member terrorist cell inside of Israel, made up of eight Arab-Israelis and controlled by a single Lebanese handler.
The nine cell members were originally enlisted by their Hezbollah handler for weapons smuggling last summer.
According to the investigation, conducted by Israel Police and the Shin Bet internal security agency, the cell members were initially told they would be smuggling drugs into Israel from Lebanon.
Communicating with their Hezbollah handler via the Whatsapp social media platform, two cell members collected nine packages from a designated collection point along the border barrier.
Later, however, the two cell members found that the packages contained weapons, rather than drugs.
The weapons included rifles, pistols, and anti-personnel mines.
On August 31st, Hezbollah instructed the cell to purchase remote-control cameras, with one cell member ordered to leave his vehicle parked at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.
On September 1st, a member of the cell assembled a makeshift bomb using the anti-personnel mine and the remote-control cameras, with the goal of enabling the cell to watch a live feed of the bomb, waiting for the target to approach before remotely detonating it.
Eleven days later, three days before the planned bombing, the device was retrieved from a hiding place and brought to Tel Aviv.
On September 15th, the bomb detonated prematurely at 6:30 a.m., forcing one of the cell members to flee to the Beit Hanina neighborhood in Jerusalem with the aid of a second cell member.
Both cell members were arrested en route to Jerusalem later that day, with six others arrested during the subsequent investigation.
According to the Shin Bet and Israel Police and based on interrogations of the suspects, the cell members had planned to kill Ya’alon during his daily jog through Hayarkon Park on the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
All eight of the arrested suspects have been indicted on terror charges, while the ninth member of the has been charge in absentia.