Two West Bank terror cells created by the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah have been broken up by Israeli security over the past few months, the Shin Bet revealed Tuesday.
Members were recruited via Facebook and other social media by members of Hezbollah’s foreign operations unit operating out of both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the agency charged. The recruits had been planning suicide bombings and ambushes of IDF patrols, and had already received funding and begun preparing explosives and acquiring weapons when they were apprehended.
“The Hezbollah organization has recently made it a priority to try to spark terror acts, doing so from far away, while attempting to not clearly expressing its involvement,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
The leader of one cell was 18-year-old Mustafa Kamal Hindi from Qalqilya. Hindi told interrogators that he had been recruited through a Facebook page called “Palestine is Free,” which featured anti-Israel and pro-terror propaganda. He was later contacted through encrypted communications by a man named “Bilal,” who told him to plan an ambush against an IDF patrol and to recruit a cell to help with the attack. One member of his cell, Mehmed Majd Mehmed Amin Daoud, also had ties with Hamas.
In another case, Gaza resident and Hezbollah operative Mehmed Fa’iz Abu-Jadian allegedly recruited three West Bank residents to carry out a suicide bombing on an Israeli bus for $900. Abu-Jadian also promised to pay another operative $8,000 to recruit more members to carry out an ambush on IDF soldiers near Jenin, in the West Bank.
The Shin Bet said that it is also aware of ongoing efforts by Hezbollah to recruit Israeli Arabs who have posted anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian sentiments on Facebook. The agency announced in January that it had broken up a West Bank Hezbollah cell that had been recruited by Jawad Nasrallah, the son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the elder Nasrallah last year that the global nuclear deal would provide them with a “historic opportunity” to threaten Israel. Reports surfaced last September that Iran backed up Zarif’s words by boosting its funding of Hezbollah and Hamas in anticipation of the financial windfall it would be receiving due to sanctions relief.
In November 2014, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the destruction of Israel and announced his support for arming Palestinians in the West Bank.
[Photo: Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90 ]