Israeli Shin Bet busts Jewish suicide ring in West Bank

The Shin Bet security service announced on Wednesday that it had broken up a Jewish terrorism cell that carried out a series of dangerous attacks on Palestinians in the northern West Bank, according to Jpost.

According to a statement by the Shin Bet, in the second half of 2015, six members of the cell were behind a number of terror attacks and violent acts, in particular, arson attacks on inhabited Palestinian homes. 

"The intelligence we gathered around these attacks pointed to the existence of a Jewish terror organization in Nahliel, western Binyamin," the Shin Bet stated. It added that following a "lengthy intelligence effort, the Shin Bet exposed the organization." 
An investigation began at the start of April, involving teams from the Shin Bet and the Nationalistic Crimes Division of Judea and Samaria district police. 

Suspects who were taken into custody "confessed to carrying out widespread terror activities, which included attempts to harm inhabited Palestinian homes, attacking minorities, arson, and vandalizing Palestinian vehicles," the Shin Bet added. The suspects allegedly also hurled rocks from a passing vehicle at Palestinian cars. 

Suspects were led to the scenes of their crimes and reenacted them for investigators, security forces said. The Shin Bet described the organization as "extreme and violent, which systematically harmed Palestinians and their property, with full knowledge that human lives could be harmed, even after the result of the [fatal] arson attack on a home in Duma [in which Palestinian parents and their baby were murdered last year]." The Duma attack acted as an "inspiration," the Shin Bet said.

It listed six suspects, two of them minors, and one of them, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, as forming the cell. 

According to the investigation, the suspects were behind seven attacks in recent months, including, over the summer, an attack on a farmer with sticks and tear gas, the firebombing of a home in the village of Mazra Kabaliya at night, when family members were asleep, and the spray painting of the words "death to Arabs" and "Jews wake up" on their walls. "The firebomb miraculously bounced off the wall of the home, averting a major disaster," the Shin Bet said. 

More recently, in December, the suspects allegedly threw gas grenades at night on an inhabited home in the village of Bitilu, to "avenge" the arrests of suspects for the Duma arson attack. 

Central District Prosecutors will, in the coming days, charge the suspects with severe terrorism offenses.

Source ; MENA