Hamas terror cell arrested in Nablus

Terrorists were responsible for death of two IDF soldiers in 2005, shooting near Ariel this year.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
balata nablus 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
balata nablus 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Security forces operating in Nablus in October arrested a group of Hamas terrorists responsible for the deaths of two IDF soldiers, defense officials announced Tuesday. Members of the group confessed to planning and carrying out the 2005 murder, as well as a shooting attack near Ariel earlier this year in which an IDF soldier was seriously wounded and a civilian was lightly wounded. In the 2005 attack near Migdalim, the terrorists, who were dressed in IDF uniforms, stopped the soldiers' car and opened fire, killing soldiers Yossef Atia and Ariel Boda. Two other soldiers were lightly wounded in the attack. Members of the group also told their interrogators that prior to carrying out the second attack near Ariel on October 24 of this year, they surveyed the area and purchased a car with Israeli license plates. After the attack, in which they opened fire at the Ariel junction bus stop, wounding the civilian and the soldier, they escaped to the village of Jamma'in near Kalkilya. On their way, they continued shooting at passing vehicles, lightly wounding another civilian and damaging several cars. When they arrived in Jamma'in, they torched the car and returned to Nablus by cab. The Government Press Office stated that the arrest of the group was further proof that Hamas was still pursuing the course of terror. "The exposure of the terrorist cell and the incriminating evidence uncovered against it, indicate that despite its pretensions to the contrary, Hamas operatives are - at present - intensively planning to perpetrate attacks against Israelis in Judea, Samaria, the Gaza Strip, as well as in Israel proper. "Hamas's actions are manifested in the planning of terrorist attacks, and the maintaining of attack capability and organizational strength, all of which are designed to strengthen Hamas as the leader of Palestinian terrorism," the statement read.