Shin Bet officers and police arrested the terrorists who bombed a bus in Tel Aviv on Wednesday several hours after the device exploded, the agency revealed on Thursday evening.
The
cell’s members mostly came from Beit Lakia, near Ramallah, the Shin Bet
(Israel Security Agency) announced in a statement, without saying how
many were under arrest.
During their preliminary interrogation,
the cell’s members identified with Hamas and Islamic Jihad and said they
had agreed to commit an act of terrorism, prepared the bomb and
purchased cellular phones to detonate it by remote control.
They
also said one of the cell’s members was from Taiba in Israel. He
originally come from Beit Lakia, and acquired Israeli citizenship after
marrying an Israeli Arab.
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court extended the remand of the Taiba resident by ten days on Friday. The court also extended by four days the remand of an additional suspect.
The cell is said to have reached Tel
Aviv in a car belonging to an Arab from east Jerusalem who employed the
man from Taiba. The latter was in charge of putting the device on the
bus, and after he notified his Beit Lakia commander by phone, the bomb
was detonated from Beit Lakia.
The Shin Bet said the interrogation was still not complete and that further arrests were expected.
Of the 28 Israelis wounded in the bombing, five remained hospitalized on Thursday, one in serious condition.