Terrorists (illustration)
Terrorists (illustration)Flash 90

The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet or Shabak) and the Jerusalem District Police nabbed a terror cell in the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, in a report cleared for publication Wednesday afternoon. 

The terror cell was responsible for carrying out a number of attacks against Israelis, especially in the nearby French Hill neighborhood and the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University.

The major terrorist attacks carried out by members of the squad include the following:

Throwing Molotov cocktails at a synagogue on HaHayal street in the French Hill in November 2013.

Setting fire to a police vehicle in the French Hill in November 2013.

Throwing Molotov cocktails at an apartment in the French Hill in February 2014.

Throwing firebombs at a dance hall in the French Hill earlier this month.

Terror cell members named in the report include: Mufid Muhammad Shafiq, 20; and Muhammad Kamal Ahed, Ibrahim Mohammad Odeh Derabas, Lid Dawood Hassan Ilian, and Atta Mohammad Bassam Ilian - all 19.

Indictments against all suspects will be submitted to the Jerusalem District Courts in the next several days, according to the report. This is the second announcement of a terror cell nabbed in Jerusalem in less than 12 hours. 

French Hill a 'War Zone'

Attacks from Issawiya have become so violent over the past several months that students at nearby Hebrew University Mount Scopus Campus have declared the area a "war zone."

New IDF regulations last November revealed the army also deemed the area unsafe for its soldiers.

Residents of the French Hill area stated earlier this month that they felt "abandoned" by the State and the IDF over the waves of terrorism in their neighborhood. 

Arutz Sheva has been reporting for years that the Arabs of Issawiya routinely harass female students at the university as they make their way from the dormitories to the campus, and that the authorities and university have been ineffective in their attempts to stop the phenomenon.

Other news channels are loath to report the phenomenon out of obedience to “political correctness.”