BICOM

The head of Israel’s security service said on Wednesday that 250 terror attacks had been prevented since the beginning of 2018.

Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman, speaking at an international counter-terrorism conference hosted by the Public Security Ministry in Jerusalem, said Israel has arrested 400 Palestinians who planned to commit lone wolf attacks, including suicide bombings, abductions and shooting attacks.

He explained that Israel’s threats “are varied and spread over several unstable and challenging arenas,” adding that his organisation’s success is due to “the combination of quality, dedicated human assets, advanced technology and unique and professional operation methods”.

“As a learning, incorporative, advanced and technological organisation we put great emphasis on strategic cooperation with our friends in the (intelligence) community in both Israel and abroad, with the Israeli high-tech industry and with other civilian bodies,” he said.

Argaman added that “the security service knew to adapt itself and use technological, intelligence and operational tools in order to find these assailants ahead of time.”

He profiled the “lone wolf” terrorist, explaining that they act “mostly act out of imitation and inspiration and often follow the radical and inciting discourse on social media”.

According to the statistics that he presented, the Shin Bet prevented 400 attacks in 2017 and arrested 1,384 Palestinians who had planned terror attacks, thirteen of which had planned to commit suicide attacks, whereas others had planned to abduct soldiers and civilians.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen told delegates at the conference that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reiterated to her his praise for the cooperation between Israel and the US. “We have no greater ally than the US. That’s clear. But I think that you have no better ally than Israel” the Prime Minister told her.