Four Palestinian men and a woman who was planning to fake a pregnancy in order to carry out a suicide bombing were arrested for planning terror attacks, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced yesterday according to a report in The Times of Israel.
Five suspects hailing from Jenin and the village Attil in the Tulkarem area of the West Bank planned to infiltrate into Israel by acquiring a permit for the female member of their group to receive medical care in Israel.
She was then to dress as a pregnant Jewish woman and detonate an explosive belt in Tel Aviv, the Shin Bet said in a statement.
The cell members admitted under Shin Bet interrogation to planning to carry out shooting attacks, detonate a mine next to a bus carrying soldiers, and kidnap a soldier as well, according to the internal security agency.
The IDF blog revealed details of the foiled plan:
During the investigation, the perpetrators also confessed their intention to gain access to an apartment often used by illegal workers to plan and carry out the suicide attack. Additionally, the perpetrators confessed to communicating with a terrorist in the Gaza Strip who was to aid them in making the explosive belt. The attack was to be carried out under the responsibility of both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. …
This investigation sheds a light on the high functioning terror infrastructure that continuously plots against Israel, and the growing motivation to harm Israeli civilians, especially following Operation Protective Edge, with assistance and direction from terror operatives in the Gaza Strip.
The five suspects were arrested in October and November. The woman, identified as Yasmin Tisir Abed Al-rahman Sha’aban, was arrested along with Menadel Mupak Tupik Tekaz, Ma’ataz Mupak Tupik Tekaz, Abed Al-Halak Ha’ashem Abed Al-charim Masimi and Maruan Mahmud Mahmed Tzedki. So far, only Menadel Tekaz and Yasmin Sha’aban have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and membership in an illegal organization.
In 2008, the Shin Bet released a report documenting numerous instances of terror groups using medical permissions to attempt terror attacks. In 2007, two women used false medical documentation to attempt to cross into Israel to carry out suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and Netanya. In 2005, Wafa Samir Ibrahim Bass, a Gaza resident undergoing treatment for burns in an Israeli hospital was apprehended at the Erez crossing with an explosive belt, which she wore with the goal of detonating herself inside the hospital.
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