Explosives belt designated for holiday attack found in Tel Aviv apartment
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Roni Heruti-Singer, Haaretz Correspondents
A suicide attack in Tel Aviv was thwarted on Saturday when security forces found an explosives belt in an apartment in the city, designated to be used in an attack over the Yom Kippur holiday.
The belt was found Saturday morning in an apartment near the southern end of Allenby Street by the Shin Bet security service, operating with Yarkon District Police.
The apartment was occupied by Palestinians residing there illegally. It was apparently smuggled in parts from the West Bank City of Nablus.
The residents attempted to resist arrest, and, in the process, one officer was wounded and needed medical attention. They were ultimately arrested and taken in for questioning.
Sappers came to the scene and blew up the belt in a controlled explosion.
The belt was intended to be used in an attack to be carried out by a suicide bomber who was arrested in Nablus late Thursday, after a three-day operation by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet officers.
The IDF had deployed large forces in the Beit Ilma refugee camp in Nablus, in an effort to capture a cell of militants that included members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The security services had received intelligence information that the cell was planning to carry out a suicide bombing attack in central Israel during the holidays.
The Shin Bet security service had picked up the trail to the explosives belt when it arrested Nihad Shkirat, the head of the joint Hamas-PFLP cell on Thursday, the army said. Shkirat told investigators he passed the belt to another Palestinian who works in Tel Aviv.
Police arrested that suspect Friday night and were led to the Tel Aviv apartment where they found the belt.
During the three-day operation, IDF Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Henman was killed, as were two Palestinians, a civilian and an armed PFLP militant.
Explosives belt designated for holiday attack found in Tel Aviv apartment
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