West Bank students indicted for links with Hamas
Shin Bet investigation indicates 2 Birzeit University students were recruited by the terror organization via Facebook; additional West Bank resident suspected of association with Gazan official.
Issa Shalalda, 21, and Omar Mas'ud, 20, are suspected of being active in a Hamas student cell at Birzeit University near Ramallah.
Their interrogation revealed that they were recruited by the terror organization via Facebook to carry out attacks and assist in the transfer of terror funds.
In addition, Shalalda and Mas'ud are suspected of being trained by Hamas.
Hazam Hamil, 24, from the West Bank was indicted for maintaining ties with a Gazan official via Facebook.
A Shin Bet questioning indicates Hamil was instructed by Hamas to promote terror attacks for which he was supposed to receive funds and weapons.
According to the indictment, Hamil had direct contact with the enemy.
During 2015, officials of Hamas's military wing established a secret terror infrastructure consisted of the terror organization's activists in Gaza as well as the West Bank.
The infrastructure's purpose was to recruit terror activists from the West Bank and Israel in order to carry out terror attacks against Israeli citizens, According to the shin Bet.
A special effort was invested in recruiting Palestinian engineering students who served as explosive device manufacturers.
Since the establishment of the infrastructure, the Shin Bet and IDF have detained dozens of Hamas activists who operated via social media to execute terror attacks in Israel.
The recent arrests were carried out after the terror infrastructure in the strip attempted to increase the pace of terror attacks in the West Bank.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot warned the Security-Cabinet two weeks ago that there is a more than moderate chance that a violent conflagration could erupt in the West Bank, adding that the US decision to choke the Palestinian Authority (PA) of financial funds is counter productive for Israel and could inflame matters in the area.
Moreover, The Ministry of Defense's National Counterterrorism Bureau announced that it had uncovered a terrorist financing infrastructure for Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The scheme was exposed in a joint operation of the IDF, the Tax Authority and the Shin Bet.
According to suspicions, Hamas used textile merchants who import large containers into the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas figure Hamed Khudari, through his financial exchange business, declared by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as a terrorist organization, contacted Gaza businessmen and persuaded them to work with him in exchange for financial benefits.
