This week the press ban was lifted regarding the arrest a few
months ago of 12 members of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine from Gaza who planned to carry out a
bombing attack on a beis knesses in Modi'in to exact
revenge for Jewish activity at Har Habayis. The terrorist
cell also planned to execute other attacks, such as
kidnapping US citizens in the West Bank in order to secure
the release of Popular Front Secretary General Achmed
Sa'adat, who is being held in an Israeli prison.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, "The exposure of
the cell and the quick arrest of its members thwarted serious
attacks on the Israeli home front. Its activity is yet
another indication of the involvement of Gaza-based
terrorists in terror activity in Judea and Samaria."
The arrest of the cell members took place after the capture
in February of a Popular Front activist, who revealed during
his interrogation that his superiors had asked him to set up
a terror cell in the Hevron area after other Popular Front
cells had been established in Shechem and Jenin. He also said
the organization planned to carry out a terrorist attack on a
beis knesses after he was asked to recruit a suicide
bomber to implement the plan.
The activist who was captured worked illegally at a
construction site in Modi'in. During his investigation he
said the organization wanted to carry out the bombing attack
on a beis knesses located near the site where he was
working, which he even scouted out shortly before the attack
was scheduled to take place. He claimed the plan was to blow
up the building at a time when it was empty and flee to
Ramallah.
