Israeli forces foiled a plan by Hamas members to assassinate Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during this summer’s war over Gaza, according to Israel’s domestic security service Shin Bet.
Shin Bet claimed that the group, who were near Bethlehem in the West Bank, wanted to purchase a rocket-propelled grenade to fire at Lieberman.
The Foreign Minister lives in an Israeli Jewish settlement in the area.
Shin Bet identified the head of the three-man Hamas cell as Ibrahim Salim Mahmoud Zir, a former detainee in an Israeli prison for “terror-related activities”.
Israeli officials said they also uncovered, during the interrogation of the suspects, plans to fire weapons and carry out hit-and-run attacks against settlers and Israeli troops near Bethlehem.
The revelation of the alleged plot comes as The Times of Israel, citing “senior Palestinian officials”, says that Israel has arrested dozens of Hamas members throughout the West Bank “who were planning a series of attacks against Israeli targets”.
According to the site, the Palestinian officials said the network is funded and directed by Hamas officials in Turkey. They said it is headed by Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas leader who was deported from the West Bank to Turkey in 2010.
Palestinian activists said Israeli forces have detained at least 380 Palestinians in raids across the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last three weeks, including 21 early Thursday.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said that 190 people have been detained in East Jerusalem since the beginning of November. Of the others, 70 are from Hebron, 32 from Ramallah, 24 from Bethlehem, 18 from Jenin, 14 from Tulkarem, 14 from Nablus, nine from Tubas, five from Salfit, and four from Qalqiliya.
More than 5,000 Palestinians are already being held in Israeli prisons, including hundreds without charge or trial under indefinte “administrative detention”.
