The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intelligence service has announced its agents, together with the IDF and the Gideons Unit of Israel Police, thwarted a terror attack against Israel directed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey.
Hamas has long been welcomed by the head of Israel’s former ally in the region, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is a fervent supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood that spawned Hamas.
The operation was planned by a Hamas terror squad of students who call themselves the “Wall of Islam” from Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah; weapons were handed over and tens of thousands of dollars were confiscated from the headquarters.
Members of the Israel Police Gideons Unit arrested the members of the squad who were planning to carry out a significant attack.
The students were suspected of acting on behalf of the Hamas headquarters in Turkey, with the aim of providing an infrastructure for Hamas military activity against Israelis.
“The Shin Bet’s investigation of the suspects revealed that the members of the squad engaged in practical preparations to carry out a significant attack as well as a series of operations to transfer Hamas funds to operatives in the field, all under the direction of senior officials from the Hamas headquarters in Turkey,” the Shin Bet said.
“As part of the investigation it emerged that the person suspected of being the head of the cell, Mahmoud Anjaz, a resident of Kharbata Bnei Harath in Binyamin, recruited a military cell of “Wall of Islam” activists from Bir Zeit. He also used his connections with Bara Romana, a Katala activist at Abu Dis University, to contact Hamas headquarters in Turkey to obtain funds to purchase weapons and execute the attack.
Anjaz recruited activists from “Katala” — students and staff who members of Hamas in higher education institutions in the Palestinian Authority — to form the military cell.
As part of the investigation, all the members of the squad who were to carry out the attack were arrested. An M-16 assault rifle was confiscated as well as tens of thousands of dollars received from the Hamas headquarters in Turkey.
