Hamas militants attend the funeral of members of Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip March 22, 2018.. (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)
X ![]()
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
- A user experience almost completely free of ads
- Access to our Premium Section
- Content from the award-winning Jerusalem Report and our monthly magazine to learn Hebrew – Ivrit
- A brand new ePaper featuring the daily newspaper as it appears in print in Israel
Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
UPGRADE YOUR JPOST EXPERIENCE FOR 5$ PER MONTH Show me later
Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency announced Wednesday that it foiled efforts by Hamas to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets under the direction of operatives from the Gaza Strip.
According to the agency, 21 year-old Issa Shalaldeh and 20 year-old Omar Mas’ud were arrested on suspicion of being recruited by Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip to carry out terror attacks against Israelis and also for aiding in the transfer of terror funds.
The two, who were activists in the Hamas student group at Bir Zeit University, are also suspected of undergoing various military trainings. They were charged with having links with terror elements and being members of a terror organization.
During the investigation, 24 year-old Hazem Hamayel was found to have contacted a Hamas official by using a fictional Facebook profile. The Hamas official is said to have taught him how to organize a terror attack.
According to the Shin Bet, senior members of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip established a cell composed of Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 2015 in order to recruit more operatives to carry out terror attacks against Israelis.
The cell specifically targets Palestinian students from the fields of engineering and technology as they would have the know-how to manufacture explosives.
“The activity of the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, along with additional Hamas activity from the Gaza Strip (such as the “West Bank headquarters”) is an inseparable part of Hamas’ attempts to undermine security stability in the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip,” read a statement released by the Shin Bet.
“The agency follows these ongoing efforts and will work to thwart any activity of the Hamas terrorist organization in advance,” it added.
JPOST VIDEOS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU:
Dozens of Hamas operatives have been arrested by the Shin Bet and the IDF since the establishment of the cell and during their interrogations have confessed that they had been recruited by the Gaza cell through social networks to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets.
Since the beginning of the latest wave of violence to hit Israel and the West Bank which began in September 2015, numerous Hamas attacks have been thwarted by security forces including arresting a Hamas operative who was a member of Hamas’ student faction at Bir Zeit University.
In August the Shin Bet broke up a large network in Hebron which recruited dozens of activists, including a number of women, who operated in coordination with Hamas headquarters abroad as well as in the Gaza Strip in order to promote terror activity.
Two months earlier in June the Shin Bet arrested 20 Hamas members from the West Bank city of Nablus who planned lethal attacks across the country, including a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
In January security forces broke up a 17 member Hamas terror cell in the southern West Bank whose members had been active in promoting terrorist attacks under the guidance of a Hamas activist in the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas kidnapping plot was also broken up by the Shin Bet last December where cell members operating from the village of Tel near Nablus planned to use Israeli hostages as a bargaining chip in negotiations to release Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>
Comments are closed.