In Bethlehem, in southern West Bank, forces broke into Aida refugee camp near the city and detained Ahmad Mohammad Mashayekh, 19, after raiding and searching his family home.
Advertisement
Abed al-Hamid Abu Srour seen here in an undated photograph, has been named by Hamas as the person responsible for the April 18 bus bombing in Jerusalem.
Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bus blast following Abu Srour’s death, saying he was a member of the the group’s resistance movement and had carried out the bombing.
His father denies this.
The Shin Bet described the cell as “extreme and violent” and said it “systematically harmed Palestinians and their property, with full knowledge that human lives could be harmed, even after the result of the arson attack on a home in Duma”.
According to the Shin Bet, the members of the group were behind a June 20, 2015, attack on a Palestinian farmer whom they had beaten with sticks and subjected to tear gas. “This is a group that wants to destroy Jewish Israel, to destroy this country from within, to turn it into a state of hatred and to destroy the regime from within”, she said.
The raid in Abu Dis, a town under joint control by Israelis and Palestinians, also uncovered raw materials for building pipe bombs and large quantities of ammunition, the Jerusalem Post newspaper said.
Earlier this week a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem wounded 20 people, with Israel blaming Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip.
Within the West Bank, Palestinians will be able to enter Jewish settlements to work during the closure, an army spokesperson said.
The military says Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli forces during the demolition.
Israel regularly shuts access from Palestinian areas for major Jewish religious events, though exceptions are made for medical and humanitarian actions.
The alleged attack was part of a wave of violence that erupted in October and which has killed 201 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.
Advertisement
Immediately after the bus bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to find the culprit and those who sent him.
