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Tuesday, July 20, 2010     INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING

Hamas operatives planned attacks disguised
as Jewish motorists

TEL AVIV — The Israel Security Agency has dismantled part of a Hamas cell that operated south of the West Bank city of Hebron.

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Officials said the Hamas insurgents activated the unit in mid-2009 and were responsible for the shooting death of an Israeli police officer in June 2010.

Officials said the Hamas cell also planned additional attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces. They included disguising cell members as Jewish motorists and offering Israeli hitch-hikers a lift in the southern West Bank.


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"The operatives had already begun scouting the area and had purchased yarmulkes [Jewish skull caps] and a wig that they planned to use in the attack," the military said.

"They conducted several months of training before they went on their first operations," an official said.

So far, at least four members of the alleged Hamas cell have been captured. On June 22, ISA detained and interrogated the alleged insurgents, said to have operated from the southern West Bank village of Dir Tsamet, Middle East Newsline reported.

Officials said the suspects, some of whom had served in Israeli prisons, confessed to killing the Israeli officer, identified as Sgt. Maj. Yehoshua Sofer, The suspects, one of whose children was recently treated at an Israeli hospital, were quoted as saying that three members of the cell opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles from their vehicle upon the signal of a fourth, assigned to reconnaissance.

"After questioning the operatives, ISA was able to determine that they had formed the Hamas terror cell a few years ago in order to execute terror attacks," the Israeli military said on July 19. "For this purpose, the operatives accumulated munitions, including three AK-47 assault rifles, in a stockpile hidden in a hilly area."

The Hamas cell was said to have conducted reconnaissance for several days along Route 60, which runs through the West Bank.

The alleged insurgents noticed a police car that traveled the road every morning around 7 a.m.



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