Sixteen members of Islamic Jihad and Hamas cells operating in Bethlehem, including some who served in the Palestinian Police, planned to perpetrate two double suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim and French Hill neighborhoods. Details released by the Shin Bet on Tuesday revealed that all the suspects had been arrested in combined IDF and Shin Bet operations in recent weeks following the July arrest of Mohammed Darawi, a former member of the Palestinian security service who was recruited by the Fatah Tanzim in Bethlehem. The group had planned to smuggle an ambulance rigged with a large quantity of explosives into Jerusalem and detonate it in a populated area of the capital.
The cell members received orders from Siad A-Fatah Ibrahim Abu Jidian, a member of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and joined forces with Hamas activists in Bethlehem who had recruited four suicide bombers. The plan was to launch two double suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem with the Hamas supplying the suicide bombers and the Islamic Jihad the explosives. Other plans included rigging two cars with explosives and blowing them up near Rachel's Tomb and then detonating additional bombs as emergency crews reached the site. Security officials said the arrests of the cell members is further proof of the ongoing cooperation between employees of Palestinian security forces and terror organizations. It also points to the growing cooperation between terror groups headquartered in Gaza and in the West Bank.
The multiple arrests also led to the confiscation of large number of Kalashnikov rifles, bombs, ammunition clips and chemicals used to manufacture explosives. The four would-be suicide bombers recruited to launch the attacks in Jerusalem were identified as Mohammed Fuad Adwin,17, Mussa A-Karim Mussa Ajwaz,17, Mohammed Sami Hamid Aza,16 and Mataz A-Khader Abu Nadan,17, all residents of Bethlehem.
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