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Security forces foil imminent terror attacks in Jerusalem

Terrorists from Gaza smuggled weapons to several activists they had recruited in Judea and Samaria.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israeli security forces have foiled a string of potentially large attacks in Jerusalem and other cities that were being planned by Palestinian cells recruited and armed by Gazan terrorists, the Shabak (Israel’s security agency) announced Tuesday. Several arrests were made in recent weeks.

The cell leaders are two residents of Rafiah in the southern Gaza Strip who are members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a coalition of Hezbollah-financed, armed Palestinian groups that originate from the Palestinian Authority’s main Fatah faction but oppose its supposed conciliatory approach towards Israel.

Tzabri Mahmoud Eram (40) and Ayman Youssef Khalil Zakkut (31) were under covert surveillance throughout the recruitment and planning process, according to the Shabak. They smuggled weapons to several Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, including a pair of brothers who were arrested last month on suspicion of planning a bombing attack in Israel.

Another two Palestinians who were arrested recently revealed under interrogation that they had been instructed to carry out a shooting attack in Jerusalem in the coming days. They turned over the weapon they had been given to use in the attack.

The IDF and Israeli Police worked together with the Shabak in uncovering the terror infrastructure over the last several weeks.

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The PRC has been designated a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States. Established in 2000, it took responsibility for several infamous attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip prior to the 2005 ‘Disengagement‘ – when Jews living in the Gush Katif region of the Strip were forced out of their homes.

The attacks included the bombing of a school bus that claimed the lives of two adults and seriously injured several children.

The terrorists also shot and killed a pregnant woman, Tali Hatuel, along with her four daughters, ages 2-11, as she drove towards the Kissufim Junction in Gush Katif in 2004.

An unrelated spate of arrests was carried out overnight Monday-Tuesday by the IDF, Shabak and Border Police in Judea and Samaria; 16 suspected terrorists were taken into custody.