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IDF Arrests 13 Hamas Operatives in West Bank Raids

Israeli security forces arrested 17 terror suspects across the West Bank overnight Sunday, including 13 alleged members of Hamas, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

Five of the suspects are wanted for their involvement in “popular terror” and attacks against both Israeli soldiers and civilians. Popular terror typically refers to rock throwing and firebombing attacks against Israeli citizens and security forces.

One of the detainees is a Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet, the country’s internal security agency, also seized thousands of shekels in the West Bank town of Saffa that were said to be intended to finance terrorism.

In another raid last week, the IDF and Shin Bet shut down an illegal weapons workshop near Hebron and confiscated four gun-making lathes.

Israeli forces remove a lathe from an illegal weapons workshop in the West Bank. [Photo: IDF Spokesperson]The IDF shut down some 40 illegal weapons workshops in the West Bank last year, seizing over 420 guns. Security forces say that homemade weapons were frequently used during the wave of terror that began in October 2015, including the firearm used in June’s terror attack on the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv. In December, the IDF revealed that it had shut down the biggest weapons factory discovered in the West Bank to date.

Earlier that month, the Shin Bet announced the arrest of a seven-man Hamas cell in the West Bank, which was planning to kidnap an Israeli soldier in order to negotiate the release of a jailed terrorist. The terrorist in question, Ibrahim Abdallah Ranimat, orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of IDF soldier Sharon Edri in 1996, as well as a suicide bombing attack on a Tel Aviv cafe in 1997, which claimed the lives of three women and wounded 48 others. Later in the month, the Shin Bet announced that it had broken up a 20 person cell that had been planning suicide bombings and shooting attacks in Jerusalem, Haifa, and other major cities.

In addition to its West Bank activity, Hamas has also been beefing up its military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. The terror organization spends an estimated $40 million of its $100 million military budget on building tunnels into Israel that can be used in future terrorist attacks. An Israeli official estimated in July that Hamas digs some six miles of tunnels every month. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly the head of the research division of Israeli military intelligence and later the director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told reporters last year that the tunnels were a sign that Hamas is preparing for another war against Israel. “They definitely invest a lot in making the necessary preparations so that in the next round, when they decide to start it, they will be able to inflict the heaviest damage on Israel, including through those tunnels,” he said.

[Photo: ILTV ISRAEL DAILY / YouTube ]