Two employees of the British Consulate General in Jerusalem have been charged with weapons trafficking in connection to an
alleged Hamas plot to fire a missile into the capital's main soccer stadium, Reuters reported.
A British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman confirmed the arrested and said that Britain was seeking confirmation of the charges immediately.
RELATED:Civilian casualties, Gaza and the political war Hamas through the ages "We have been told by the Israeli authorities that the investigation into our two employees is unrelated to the work they do at the consulate," the spokesman told Reuters.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said that the consulate employees aided the the plotters of the attack in obtaining guns. The plotters are two east Jerusalem Arabs, Musa Hamada from the Sur Baher neighborhood and his friend Bassem Omeri, an Israeli citizen from Beit Safafa.
According to details of the investigation released for publication on Sunday, the two men collected intelligence on Teddy Stadium, the home of Betar Jerusalem, with the goal of firing a missile into it during a game.
The pair allegedly began plotting the attack following the IDF’s Cast Lead offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip two years ago. They visited a number of hilltops near the 21,600-capacity stadium in the capital’s south to study possible launch sites for the attack, likely to be carried out with an anti-tank missile.
The attack did not materialize, however, after the two concluded that it was too complicated.
Hamada and Omeri, the Shin Bet said, also bought a number of handguns and tried to procure rifles and bombs.
Other Arab residents of Jerusalem were involved in purchasing the weapons, and they have also been arrested.