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Tel Aviv police vehicle (file)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners April 10, 2007 |
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A terrorist plot to blow up a car loaded with explosives in the heart of Tel Aviv during Passover was foiled, Shin Bet forces and the IDF reported and cleared for publication on Tuesday.
According to reports in the Israeli press Wednesday, the country's intelligence services and security forces succeeded in arresting 19 Hamas members in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, one of whose members would have been the suicide bomber. The cell planned to detonate a car bomb containing some 220 lbs of explosives.
The would-be killer had exploited Israel's family-reunification program to obtain an Israeli ID, enabling him to drive with an Israeli license plate into Israel without arousing suspicion. He had actually made it with his car bomb all the way into Tel Aviv but, for inexplicable reasons, then returned to Qalqilya, where the car had blown up.
According to a security source quoted by Ynetnews, "The discovery of this ring shows that Hamas is actually beginning to realize its strengthening in the form of attacks."
It became obvious, following a recent wave of arrests of Hamas members in Qalqilya, that the group's members there were working toward terrorist attacks in Israel's as soon as possible, after a period of growth and strengthening of abilities. The investigations proved that the group was plotting a number of attacks in Israel in addition to the foiled car bomb plot.
The arrests were made before Passover began, in order to ensure a safe holiday.
"The picture that emerges in interrogations of the members of the cell clearly signals that the Hamas organization in Qalqilyah has shifted from the stage of 'force building' to the operational stage and the carrying out of attacks, including suicide attacks inside Israel. According to information, they continue to work on planning and execution of significant attacks, including ones in the immediate future," the Shin Bet announcement said.
Qalqilya's proximity to major Israeli cities means that travel in and out of the area is relatively easy. Arabs who have Israeli IDs are able to come and go freely, in an Israeli effort not to inconvenience the lives of Qalqilya's residents.
Defense establishment sources pointed out that this is yet another case in which terror groups take advantage of Israel's policy of providing IDs through the family-reunification program, to commit terrorist attacks. The sources explained that, in this case, the bomber's ID enabled him to collect information within Israel, and gave Hamas the advantage of having access to a car marked with an Israeli license plate.
According to Haaretz, the Qalqilyah cell is the largest Hamas cell to have been exposed in the West Bank in recent years. The last terrorist attack perpetrated by a Qalqilya-based Hamas cell was the Dolphinarium attack in Tel Aviv in June 2001, in which 21 teenagers were killed.
Had the Tel Aviv car bombing succeeded, it would have been the second massacre perpetrated by Palestinians during the Passover holiday.
On March 27, 2002, 30 people were killed and about 140 were injured when a terrorist blew himself up in a Netanya hotel, where 250 guests were enjoying a Passover meal.
Jerusalem Newswire contributed to this article. |
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