Israel’s Shin Bet security agency announced Sunday that it had thwarted a Hamas attack planned to take place around the time of the April 9 national elections.
In a statement, the Shin Bet said that it had worked together with the army in uncovering a “terror” cell in the occupied West Bank.
Yahya Abu Dia, 23, from Jerusalem, was arrested after he was suspected of contacting senior Hamas operatives in the West Bank.
In his interrogation, Abu Dia said that he was in touch with senior Hamas members in the Gaza Strip and that he had been recruited for military activities. He agreed to carry out missions and act as a suicide bomber, according to a Shin Bet statement.
“Abu Dia was instructed to purchase a car and rent a storage facility in order to prepare the car bomb and also to track the best site for the attack in the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim near Jerusalem, somewhere where there would be a high concentration of buses, civilians and soldiers,” it added.
Hamas is working constantly to recruit operatives “from the West Bank to carry out murderous terror attacks in order to derail the security and stability of the area,” read the statement, adding that the Shin Bet has prevented many of the plots.
Last year, the agency thwarted assassination plots against various figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat.
The Shin Bet also thwarted a plot by the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine to assassinate former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. More than 100 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank and Jerusalem last year for planning similar operations, said Israeli figures.
