Israeli’s Shin Bet security service has released the details of a shocking Hamas plot that would have combined terror attacks on Israeli citizens with the overthrow of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The goal was to have a “third intifada uprising.” The plot would have opened a second front against Israel during Operation Protective Edge.
Shin Bet said that 90 Hamas operatives have been arrested in connection to the plot. Hundreds of weapons were seized along with $170,000 that was designated to fund the attack either through payments to security officials or payments to homicide bombers.
The attack within Israel was to have a centerpiece of the Temple Mount. The plan was so detailed that it had a flowchart of Hamas operatives who were in charge of the operation and those directly under them as if it was some kind of corporate organization.
The plot also focused on recruiting students, especially those who had been studying chemistry or engineering, for plotting bomb attacks on structures aimed to cause building collapse.
The mastermind of the plot is Hamas terrorist Salah al-Arouri who is in hiding in Turkey. According to the Times of Israel, authorities within the IDF have evidence that al-Arouri plotted the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers before the current Hamas-Israel conflict.
Sources close to the Cairo negotiations between Israel and terrorist group Hamas indicate that the current cease-fire is being extended for a few days rather than a long-term peace deal.
The move is being pushed by the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to keep Hamas from launching a new round of terror attacks on Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not comment on the details of the negotiations or the possibility of an extension of the current cease-fire. However, he did say that if Hamas were to start a new round of hostilities that Israel would respond with their strongest actions to date.
“We are preparing for any outcome — the Israeli team was instructed to insist firmly on Israel’s security needs, and the IDF is gearing up for a very forceful response if the fire resumes,” he says.
The Israeli Defense Forces moved additional troops into the southern territory in an apparent move to be ready for a quick strike should Hamas resume terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process is appealing to Gaza residents to back the Palestinian Authority.
“Right now, Gaza urgently needs houses, hospitals and schools – not rockets, tunnels and conflict,” Robert Serry told reporters.
The attack was scheduled to happen on Rosh Hashana.
Hamas had built tunnels that opened into residential neighborhoods, a kindergarden and various hospitals.
The plan? Massive terror attacks from all the tunnels at the same time. Kill women. Kill children.
A report released by the Israeli Defense Forces outlines the details of a Hamas plan to launch the massive terrorist attack. The plot was discovered after the IDF moved into Gaza following the kidnapping and killing of 3 Israeli youths by the Islamic terrorist group.
According to the study, Hamas spent nearly $130 million building the concrete tunnels from the Gaza strip miles into Israel. The money was taken from humanitarian relief sent into the region for the purpose of rebuilding after the last conflict with Israel.
The report also shows that Hamas used children to build the tunnels and that at least 150 children died during tunnel construction from cave-ins and accidents. The children were taken from their families without their parent’s consent to be used in the tunnel construction.
According to the Times of Israel, most of the tunnels were lined with uniforms made to resemble uniforms of the IDF. The report says the goal was to confuse forces responding to the attack and make them unable to quickly stop the assault.
An elite unit of the Israeli Defense Forces announced they had captured a Hamas operative who was planning a terrorist attack near Hebron.
The arrest led to Israeli police and the IDF carrying out a sweep in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that led to the arrest of nearly 60 people who were connected to the plot or to inciting riots.
The IDF did not release the name of the suspect or the details of the attack saying that the information was withheld for national security reasons.
The arrest is the latest in an IDF crackdown on those leading riots or attacks in Israel. The investigations into many of the arrested suspects had been placed on hold or in a lower priority because of the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Tbe IDF said that 12 suspects were arrested late Monday and Tuesday nights in the West Bank on top of the almost 60 arrested today.
Officials say that rioting has increased in the Jerusalem area as Arab groups took advantage of decreased IDF presence.
Israeli scientists have developed a system that allows the Israeli Defense Forces to detect the infiltration tunnels used by the terrorist group Hamas.
A source inside the IDF told the Jerusalem Post the system has proven flawless in laboratory testing and it will now be taken into the field to see if it is as effective in real world situations. If it proves reliable, it would be able to be deployed full-time in about a year.
The IDF also announced on Israel Radio they are working on an upgrade to the Iron Dome system.
The new system is aimed at stopping multiple rockets at the same time or multiple other pieces of debris that are fired into the country. Also, the system will be able to target rockets and other objects much higher in the air than the current system.
The IDF believes that Hamas is being given upgraded weapons by countries like Iran that will help them overwhelm the current Iron Dome system.
The IDF also prised the Trophy tank defense system, saying it successfully stopped dozens of anti-tank missiles in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
Egyptian negotiators have been frantically moving back and forth between Israeli representatives and those representing the terrorist group Hamas after another 72-hour cease-fire agreement was struck between the two sides.
Israel had previously said they would not agree to negotiations or a cease-fire unless Hamas stopped their terrorist rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
The cessation of hostilities went into effect around 5 p.m. eastern U.S. time Sunday after Hamas fired hundreds of rockets in the hour before it was to go into effect.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said they would be working with international aid groups to bring humanitarian supplies into the Gaza strip during the cease-fire. Reports say that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledge financial support for the rebuilding of Gaza and for humanitarian aid to Palestinians trapped in the Gaza strip.
The talks broke down last Friday when Hamas, enraged that Israel had not removed a naval blockade, broke a previous cease-fire with rocket attacks.
There has been one reported incident since the cease-fire. An Islamic militant was shot by the IDF after he opened fire on two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Qabalan.
Islamic terrorist group Hamas lived up to their threat and broke the 72-hour cease-fire Friday by launching rockets toward residential areas of Israel.
According to sources within the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas terrorists fired over 45 rockets Friday morning. The “Iron Dome” defense system only stopped two of the rockets from striking within Israel.
IDF spokesman said that Israel has resumed air strikes at rocket launching sites in response to the Hamas attacks.
“We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its operatives, and restore security for the State of Israel,” Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.
Egyptian negotiators have called for a resumption of the cease-fire because negotiations are close to reaching a solution. However, Hamas has refused to agree to stop their assaults because they demand all of their demands be met.
Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, is calling out the body’s head for his open bias toward the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza conflict.
After Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a verbal assault against Israel, saying they need to be investigated for their attacks that caused damage to some U.N. facilities in the Gaza Strip, Prosor responded by telling the Secretary-General he needs to realize who was behind the entire situation.
“Israel did not seek the confrontation,” Prosor said. “We left Gaza with the intention of never returning.”
Prosor was referencing the 2005 unilateral withdrawal.
It was also pointed out to the Secretary-General that Hamas was using schools, hospitals and other locations to launch attacks. On three separate occasions, Hamas weapons were found stored inside U.N. schools and the Secretary-General made no condemnation of Hamas for their actions in those cases.
Reports have begun from inside Israel that the government will agree to an extension of the 72-hour cease-fire to allow longer negotiations in Cairo, Egypt. However, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces says they have plans in place to target Hamas leadership should they break the agreement and fire a single rocket into Israel.
A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said that all ground troops had been pulled out of Gaza Tuesday morning as part of a 72-hour cease-fire agreement.
The two sides in the conflict have now sent representatives to Cairo where an Egyptian mediator will shuttle between the two sides to try and work out some kind of deal to bring a lasting peace in the conflict.
Israel had said they would not agree to a cease-fire or any deal until all the Hamas tunnels into the country were destroyed. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said that the destruction of 32 tunnels was completed late last night.
Lerner also told reporters that at least 3,500 rockets from Hamas had been fired into Israel at the time the cease-fire went into effect. He said that Israeli troops were able to destroy at least 3,000 rockets being held in storage during the ground incursion into Gaza.
Hamas has said their demands now include international funding for the rebuilding of Gaza.
Israeli Defense Forces say that tank fire which struck near a school killing 19 people who were sheltering inside came in response to Hamas terrorists using the school grounds as a base to fire mortar attacks.
“Earlier this morning, militants fired mortar shells at (Israeli) soldiers from the vicinity of the UNRWA school in Jabaliya (refugee camp). In response, soldiers fired towards the origins of fire, and we’re still reviewing the incident,” a military spokeswoman told the Jerusalem Post.
The incident occurred just hours after the United Nations reported finding Hamas missiles and weapons being stored inside one of their schools for the third time in two weeks. A U.N. spokesman said unlike the previous two times, the weapons are not being turned over to local authorities who in turn return them to Hamas.
However, a U.N. weapons disposal team that was scheduled to make the school safe for children has been unable to reach the site.
“We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school. This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of UN property,” a U.N. statement read without naming Hamas directly.
