Nadav Argaman (R)
Nadav Argaman (R)Hezki Baruch

The head of the Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, took part Tuesday in a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by MK Avi Dichter (Likud).

"The situation in the Palestinian arena has been very unstable in the past year," Argaman told the MKs at the start of the meeting, adding that "In the Gaza Strip we stand between a possible military campaign on the one hand, and an attempt to stabilize the humanitarian situation of the residents of Gaza on the other."

"The reality is very complex. We can say that on the surface we observe relative calm, but we must emphasize that this is on the surface - Hamas is trying with all its might to carry out terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria with guidance from the Gaza Strip, Turkey and Lebanon."

"We have succeeded in thwarting 480 attacks in the last year, from which we have arrested about 500 individual terrorists," said the head of the Shin Bet security service, adding that "This is a very large amount that can attest to what is happening under the surface. In addition, we succeeded last year in thwarting cyber activity - terror and spying - against the state of Israel.”