IDF troops thwarted a suicide attack in the center of the country on Wednesday after a Palestinian armed with a three-kilogram bomb in a bag was captured in an industrial zone near the West Bank city of Barkan.
Suspects lined up
Photo: Channel 10
Acting on Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intelligence, IDF troops and members of the police's elite Yamam counterterror team surrounded the Barkan industrial zone and found the bomber, Ahmad Viyud, inside a Palestinian taxi. Sappers detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion and the suspect was detained by the Shin Bet for interrogation.
The IDF said that the suicide attack was meant to be launched against a major city in the central area.
Earlier, a police SWAT team and IDF Nahal Haredi troops operating in the Ein Sultan refugee camp near Jericho killed a Palestinian fugitive. Forces surrounded a house where the wanted man was hiding and called on him to surrender. The suspect tried to evade capture and opened fire at the troops, who returned fire and killed him.
Palestinian security officials identified the dead man as Mahmoud Shaheen Haymour, a member of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
According to the IDF, the suspect had been planning terror attacks against Israel. Searches of the man's house revealed a bag containing a mortar shell.
The fugitive, the IDF said, was suspected of involvement in a number of terror attacks in Israel, including the 2001 murder of a cab driver, Simcha Ron, 60, of Nahariya, who was found stabbed to death in Kafr Ba'aneh, near Karmiel.
