Security agency says four Palestinian suspects were directed and funded by terrorist deported to Gaza in 2011 prisoner swap.
The Shin Bet security agency announced Wednesday that forces had arrested in recent weeks four Palestinians who planned to commit shooting attacks under orders of the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
The group received its directions from Belal Basharat, a Hamas terrorist released from an Israeli prison in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap and deported to Gaza, the agency said.
The Shin Bet said Basharat was a member of the Gaza-based terror group’s so-called “West Bank headquarters,” a unit involved in advancing terror attacks against Israel from the West Bank.
The Shin Bet named the two “main” suspects as Anas Maraeva, 25, from the town of Ras Atiya near the West Bank city of Qalqilya, and Aslam Tubasi, 26, from Tamun in the northern West Bank. Tubasi is Basharat’s brother-in-law, according to the agency.
Belal instructed the pair to purchase weapons and obtain information in order to carry out shooting attacks against both civilians and Israeli soldiers, the Shin Bet charged.