BICOM

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency yesterday lifted a gag order on an ISIS-affiliated terror cell which it apprehended in the West Bank in November.

The three cell members, Ahmad Shehadeh, 22, Muhammad Zaru, 21 and Qusai Masawdeh, 23 are all Hebron residents and had apparently begun to meet during the summer. The Shin Bet described them as “identifying with” ISIS but did not stipulate that they had left the West Bank to make direct contact with the group.

The announcement described Shehadeh, Zaru and Masawdeh as having “planned to murder an IDF soldier and use his weapon and uniform to carry out a shooting attack.” In addition, they admitted to constructing bombs and threw one at an IDF patrol, without causing serious damage or injury. Apparently, they also plotted to kill an Israeli resident of Hebron and planned to target the Palestinian Authority (PA) police station at Bab el-Zawiya.

Although the first to be affiliated to ISIS, there have been several terror cells uncovered by the Shin Bet in the West Bank and Jerusalem in recent months. In November, the Shin Bet revealed that it had thwarted a Hamas cell from carrying out large scale terror attacks in Jerusalem and from kidnapping Israelis, after members attempted to carry out a double bombing near a West Bank settlement. In August the Shin Bet announced it had foiled a Hamas cell planning to attack Israelis and overthrow PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Although it is the first time that the Shin Bet has identified an ISIS-linked plot in the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post says that Israel’s defence establishment regards Salafi Islamism as a marginal force in the area. However, Israeli special forces shot dead Salafi Islamist terrorists in a gun battle near Hebron in December 2013. In addition, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the most prominent terror group in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, which has on occasion attacked Israel, is thought to have received training from ISIS.