The Israel Security Service (Shin Bet) announced Wednesday the arrest and indictment of three young Arabs – two of them students at Bir Zeit University – who were recruited by the military wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization, and tasked with carrying out attacks in Judea and Samaria.
The cell, allegedly formed in 2015, was intended to recruit engineering students at the university outside the Palestinian Authority capital city of Ramallah, aiming to use them in executing attacks and transferring “terror funds.”
Since the establishment of the cell, said the agency, “dozens of Hamas operatives have been arrested by the Shin Bet security service and the IDF in various parts of Judea and Samaria.
The ISA found in its investigation that they were recruited by Hamas leaders in Gaza via social networks “to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.”
According to the Shin Bet statement, “Recently another attempt by the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to intensify terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria was revealed and thwarted. In this context, a number of elements from Judea and Samaria were arrested and interrogated.
As part of the ISA investigation, Issa Shalaldeh, 21, and Omar Massoud, 20, activists of the Hamas student cell at Birzeit University, were found to have been recruited via Facebook by members of the Hamas military wing in order to commit subversive operations and to assist in the transfer of funds designated for terrorist purposes. It was also revealed that in the course of their recruitment, they were involved in various military exercises.
Indictments were recently filed against them both for having links with terrorist elements and membership in a terrorist organization.
In addition, the Shin Bet said that Hazem Hamayel, a 24-year-old resident of Samaria, was found to be communicating via Facebook with a person in the Gaza Strip who had used a forged account. Hamayel was instructed to carry out a terrorist operation in the service of Hamas; he was supposed to receive money and weapons for this purpose from the person who recruited him.
Hamayel was indicted on charges of communicating with the enemy.
Terrorist infrastructure activities in Gaza, along with other activities carried out by Hamas from the enclave (such as the operations in Judea and Samaria) are an integral part of the terror organization’s attempts to destabilize security in Judea, Samaria, Israel and the Gaza Strip, the Shin Bet said in its statement.
“The Israel Security Agency is continuing its efforts to exact a heavy price from the Hamas military wing, and to thwart any attempt to carry out this threat.”