Israeli security personnel captured a three-man Islamic State terrorist cell in Hebron two months ago before it could carry out an imminent plot to murder an Israeli soldier and steel his weapon., the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) reported Sunday after lifting a gag order.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) identified the terrorists, all in their 20s, as Ahmed Shahada, Mohammed Zaro, and Qassai Div Masawada, all of them resident of Hebron.
Shahada confessed to the plot, which included a shooting attack on Jews in Hebron, and admitted to trying to detonate bomb to kill IDF soldiers and to assembling other bombs.
There is no indication that the cell was under direct command of the Islamic State. The terrorist trio began meeting this past summer and adopted the ISIS flag and ideology.
They almost carried out an attempt to disguise themselves as Israeli soldiers with stolen uniforms and then murder soldiers, but they backed off at the last moment.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that their citizenship might be revoked, but if they get the punishment they deserve, it won’t matter.
Israeli intelligence has been the silent hero – and silent is the way it is supposed to be – in the war on terror.
Shin Bet and IDF intelligence units work 24/7, have informants throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza and sort through thousands of Arabic-language documents and social material sources to put together the dots that track down terrorist cells.
