The Shin Bet thwarted an attack planned by a terror cell made up of students who are members of the Hamas student organization at the Ramallah-based Birzeit University, under the direction of Hamas in Turkey, the security service allowed to be made public on Sunday. The arrest of the Palestinian students was made in a joint operation by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police's Gideonim unit. The Hamas terror cell was made up of students who are students at Birzeit University known as the "Wall of Islam."
According to a statement issued by the Shin Bet: "Members of the squad were planning to carry out a significant attack." They were suspected of operating through the Hamas mission in Turkey with the aim of providing an infrastructure for Hamas military activity against Israelis. The investigation by the Shin Bet revealed that they were engaged in "practical preparations to carry out a significant attack and also in a series of actions to transfer Hamas funds to operatives in the field, all under the direction of senior officials from the Hamas headquarters in Turkey."
As part of the investigation by the Shin Bet, it emerged that the leader of the cell, Mahmoud Anjatz, a resident of the Palestinian village of Khirbat Bani Harith, recruited a military cell of activists from the university and took advantage of the connections of Baraa Romana, an activist at Abu Dis University and a resident of Al-Bireh in Ramallah, with the Hamas headquarters in Turkey in order to receive funding for the purchase of weapons for the attack.
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Hamas funneled tens of thousands of dollars to the Palestinian students to fund attacks
(Photo: Shum Bet)
All the members of the squad who intended to take part in the attack were arrested by the soldiers of Unit 33 (the Gideonim) of the Israel Police. In addition, an M-16-type weapon was seized and tens of thousands of dollars received from Hamas were confiscated, the Shin Bet reported.
The Shin Bet stated that "in recent weeks, many arrests have been made of Hamas cell operatives in institutions of higher education in the West Bank, with the aim of continuing to thwart the Hamas infrastructural activities in the territories which are directed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey and any attempt by terrorist elements outside to promote terrorist activity against the State of Israel, its citizens and residents and to prosecute those involved in such actions."