JERUSALEM — Israel uncovered a West Bank network of Hamas extremists planning a series of large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and other locations, the country’s domestic-security agency said Thursday.
The targets were to include Jerusalem’s soccer stadium and light-rail system, and the insurgents were instructed to abduct Israelis in the West Bank and abroad and carry out car bombings and other attacks, according to Shin Bet, the agency.
The plot was exposed in an investigation triggered by two bombs that were set off by a timer in the West Bank in late August, the agency reported on its website. The blasts caused no injuries.
Officials said the investigation led to the arrest of more than 30 suspects, most of whom were recruited by Hamas in Jordan as early as 2012 and received military training in various locations, including Jordan, Syria, Turkey and the Gaza Strip.
Several weapons, including firearms and bomb components, were also recovered, the officials said.
In Qatar, Hamas spokesman Husam Bardan didn’t deny the Israeli claims. “We are proud of our resistance enterprise and we are proud of every single fighter in our movement,” he said in a statement.
According to the Shin Bet, the reported plots and other exposed networks showed that Islamic movement Hamas wants to rehabilitate its military infrastructure in the West Bank to challenge Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank.
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Despite a reconciliation accord signed this year between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement, mutual mistrust persists.
In recent years, Palestinian security forces and Israel’s military have checked Hamas’ power in the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Shin Bet for thwarting the attacks, saying that if carried out, they could have exacted a heavy casualty toll.
He added that while this particular intelligence operation was publicized, others remain secret, directed at “Hamas, which challenges the existence of the Jewish nation-state and, in effect, the existence of Jews in general.”
His statement seemed to draw a connection between this latest development and the ongoing controversy surrounding his effort to pass a law defining Israel as the national homeland of Jews only.
Israel battled Hamas in Gaza during a 50-day war this past summer. On Thursday, the Israeli military said an army vehicle patrolling the border fence came under fire from Gaza. It said Israeli forces fired back. There were no injuries on the Israeli side.
Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.
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