Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, warned citizens Monday not to relax their vigilance over the upcoming Passover holiday: the ruling Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza has been planning attacks in the country during the holiday.
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman called the current quiet a period of “deceptive calm” but warned there was no doubt that terrorist groups are planning attacks against Israelis during the week of Passover.
Argaman also pointed out that since the start of the latest wave of terror in October 2015, Shin Bet agents have prevented some 400 terror attacks, arresting the operatives before they could carry out their plans.
Last week, the Shin Bet revealed the arrest and indictment of a terrorist cell from the Al Aqsa Brigades, a terrorist group linked to the Palestinian Authority’s leading Fatah faction headed by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. The cell had planned a series of attacks on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Other terrorist networks recently uncovered by the Shin Bet include a network of students linked to Hamas operating near the Palestinian Authority capital of Ramallah, a and a Hamas cell intent on carrying out a series of attacks against Israeli Jews in the Hebron area.
The Shin Bet also shut down the start of a new Hezbollah network led by a citizen of the Palestinian Authority who had been recruited by the Iranian proxy group based in Lebanon, via Facebook. The latter suspect was accused of planning to abduct Israelis, among other plots.