Channel 13 reported on Monday that Israeli troops operating in the Hebron region in the southern West Bank have arrested more than 100 Hamas members in recent days who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks.
There was no official comment from the Israel Defense Forces, however, the TV crew was accompanied by soldiers on some of the raids that took place over the past two weeks.
The report said the raids were triggered by a recent failed terror attack, when a 16-year-old Hamas member armed with an M-16 rifle tried to shoot at the entrance to the Efrat settlement, south of Jerusalem. , but failed and ran away when his gun jammed.
The report said the incident prompted the IDF and the Shin Bet Security Service to realize that there were Hamas cells armed with military-grade weapons in the Hebron region of the southern West Bank that were planning attacks in the West Bank and Israel. were making.
Over the past two weeks, a wide range of IDF units have been operating in Hebron and surrounding villages in search of members of the Ring. TV described it as one of the largest operations against Hamas in the West Bank in recent years and said more than 100 members of the militant group’s military wing had been detained.
“We are working on a very comprehensive and aggressive scale to prevent the next attack,” one of the participating officers told Channel 13.
IDF personnel seen conducting arrest raids in Hebron area (Screencapture/Channel 13)
The report compared it to the arrests announced last month Major Hamas Cell Working in the North West Bank.
However, those arrests were publicly announced by the IDF and the Shin Bet, who detailed the captured and killed members, the recovery of weapons, and the targets they were planning to hit.
The report said the Hebron cell, like other cells, was being directed by a Hamas operative based in Turkey who was released in the Gilead Shalit deal, but did not name him.
The allegation is similar to the one leveled during the bust of the second cell.
IDF personnel escort a suspect detained during a raid in the Hebron area of the West Bank (screencapture/Channel 13)
According to the Shin Bet, it was led by the terrorist group’s deputy head of the Politburo, Saleh al-Aroori, and Zakaria Najib, a member of the organization who was released from an Israeli prison at the 2011 Gilead Shalit exchange, where he allegedly Continues to work on behalf of Hamas. In the 2011 deal, more than 1,000 Palestinian militants were released from Israeli captivity in exchange for the release of Shalit, an IDF soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas on the Gaza border in 2006.
Al-Arori and Najib both live in Turkey, which has long had close ties with Hamas, which is politically linked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Israeli officials generally believe that Hamas intends to carry out attacks in the West Bank and Israel, while maintaining relatively peace in the Gaza Strip, where the group acts as the de facto ruler.