IDF soldiers operate near Ramallah Ffile)
IDF soldiers operate near Ramallah Ffile)STR/Flash 90

The Security Services released for publication Sunday that several Hamas cells has been arrested in Judea and Samaria over the past several weeks while planning attacks on Israelis.

Last month, a number of students from Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah, were detained for questioning. The students are members of the Hamas organization on campus. The investigation revealed the extent of Hamas' activities on the Bir Zeit campus and elsewhere.

The Hamas activities on campus include the holding of pro-Hamas rallies, fundraising for Hamas and the recruitment of new members for the terrorist organization. The names of organization members and committees were also revealed.

A Hamas cell which carried out extensive terrorist activity was also broken up and arrested recently. Residents of the village of Biddu in Binyamin were arrested for planting bombs, throwing firebombs at IDF soldiers, and for their involvement in a shooting attack in the town of Har Hadar in 2015. The investigation found that the terrorists were planning to carry out further shooting attacks against Jewish targets.

The arrests in Samaria were carried out as part of a joint operation between the Shin Bet, the IDF, the and the Security Services.

Mahmoud Aazi, a 20 year old Hamas activists, and Nur Aldin Git,a 22 year old resident of Hevron, were two of the members of the terrorist organization who was taken for interrogation. During interrogation, he revealed that the cell was planning carrying out shooting attacks on both civilian and army vehicles on major roads in the area.

The suspects revealed that they had carried out observations of the roads in preparation for their intended attack. They planned to spread nails across the roads to puncture the tires of passing vehicles and force them to stop. Then they planned to open fire on the stopped vehicles.

They allegedly purchased weapons in preparation for the attack, which were confiscated by security forces.

The suspects also crafted explosive devices, which they planned to use against Israeli targets, and to destroy an IDF vehicle with an explosion from a gas cylinder.