Israel arrests Hamas suspects in Jerusalem bombing

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said on Wednesday it has arrested a network of Hamas militants in the West Bank and east Jerusalem believed to be behind a deadly March bombing in the Holy City.

Dozens of militants with the Palestinian Islamist movement have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks and abductions, and of carrying out a March 23 bombing that killed a tourist and wounded another 47 people, it said.

In a statement, the agency said one of the cells was suspected of plotting a second suicide bombing in Jerusalem on August 21, while others were suspected of preparing to carry out kidnappings.

The statement named Ishaq Arafa, a 23-year-old resident of Ras al-Amud in annexed east Jerusalem, as the activist who prepared and planted the fatal Jerusalem bomb.

Around 20 other militants were also named by the agency, along with details of their alleged involvement in preparing attacks at a number of locations.

The Shin Bet said the Hamas cell which carried out the Jerusalem bombing and which was planning a second attack on the city last month was based in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and operating on direct orders from the exiled Hamas leadership in Syria.

According to the Shin Bet, the existence of the cells was proof that the leadership in Damascus was trying to rehabilitate the organisation’s military infrastructure in the West Bank in order to carry out attacks.