Description

Palestinians throw rocks during clashes with Israeli troops, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Feb. 15, 2013. Photo by AP


VIDEO: Five leaders of Tanzim-Fatah cell in Beit Fajjar confess to crimes and admit intention to perpetrate additional attacks, Shin Bet says.
By Gili Cohen for Haaretz
| Mar.28, 2013 | 2:26 PM |

Israeli security forces have in the last two months detained some 50 Palestinians suspected of involvement in a terrorist cell based in the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar, it emerged on Thursday, following the lifting of a gag order.

The cell, affiliated with Tanzim and Fatah, is suspected of hurling firebombs in the Gush Etzion bloc and shooting makeshift weapons at Kibbutz Migdal Oz last February.

Shin Bet personnel, working together with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police, launched a months-long raid on the alleged operatives. The leaders of the cell have been named as Rafat Mohammad Isa Takatka (32), Rafat Mahmoud Musa Hian (31), Anas Halami Taleb Takatka (24), Sachiv Abed Eljamil Hassan Takatka (24) and Ahmad Anwar Mohammad Takatka (27).

The Shin Bet said in a statement that the suspects confessed under interrogation, and also admitted intention to perpetrate additional shooting attacks in the Gush Etzion area. Six homemade weapons and a fake bomb were confiscated during the raids.

An IDF court in the West Bank has indicted the suspects on the following charges: shooting at a human being, manufacturing weapons, throwing a flaming object, and membership and activity in an illegal organization.

The Shin Bet noted that terrorist activity in the village, situated near Bethlehem, has increased drastically of late. “Recently, there has been a significant increase in grassroots terrorist activity around the village of Beit Fajjar… more than 50 operatives from the village were held for questioning,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed Thursday that it had arrested five Hamas activists in the West Bank city of Hebron the previous day. In the West Bank, Palestinian security forces said the arrested included Hamas legislator Mohammed Jamal Natshe and four local Hamas leaders - Abdul-Khaliq Natsheh, Mohammed Shawar, Amjad Hammouri and Jawad Jabari.

Israel has repeatedly arrested Hamas legislators in the West Bank for belonging to the Islamic militant group, considered a terror organization by Israel and the West. Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian parliament in 2006 elections, but the legislature stopped functioning after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction in 2007, leading to a territorial split between the two factions. Fatah now controls only the West Bank.