Explosive device (Archive photo)
Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Office
Independence Day terror attack thwarted
Wanted Palestinian terror suspect arrested in possession of explosive devices, says he planned to carry out terror attack in coming days
A special police force arrested a wanted suspect with an explosives device in Jericho. During his interrogation, it became clear that the suspect planned to carry out a terrorist attack in Israel during Memorial or Independence Day.
Four other suspects were taken for interrogation.
Meanwhile, it was cleared for publication that security forces arrested an Islamic Jihad member in Jerusalem who planned to carry out a terror attack near the Haifa central station.
On March 21, Shin Bet members and the police arrested Kefah Nuada, 26, from the village of Ya'amon, who was in possession of an explosives device, and who planned to carry out a suicide bomb attack in Israel.
In his interrogation he confessed that he was sent to carry out the attack by Islamic Jihad members from Jenin, and that he entered Israel with a vehicle driven by Palestinians who illegally entered Israel for work reasons.
The attack was planned for Haifa's central station, a site he was familiar from his work in the area, after illegally entering Israel. A number of other suspects were arrested with him.
During his interrogation by the General Security Services Nuada said he was sent to carry out the attack by a number of terror members, including Atzam Zayoud, an Islamic Jihad member who was arrested on April 8 2006, and who admitted that he sent Kefah to carry out a suicide bombing.
Nuada told his interrogators that he planned to carry out the attack, and that due to his time as an illegal worker, he had marked a number of places as targets. He also said he had selected the heart of the Haifa bay area as his target.
Video prepared
Nuada was filmed by Islamic Jihad members reading his will, armed with a Kalashnikov, and in the evening he was given the explosives in his bag, and told how to detonate it.
At 6:00 Kefah set out with a cab driver, and reached the Nablus area, in possession of the explosives. He then entered a vehicle with Israeli license plates, driven by Yasser Matzri, a resident of the Old City in Jerusalem.
In his investigation, Matzri confessed that he picked up 12 Palestinians without permission to enter Israel in order to enter the country through a route that "went around the fence."
He drove to the Hawara checkpoint in Nablus, where he passed through IDF checkpoints without being checked. He continued on to the Ramallah area and to the Zaim checkpoint in the Jerusalem area, where he was also not checked, and from there he took an exit to Jerusalem on Highway 1.
At a junction not far from Jerusalem, a Shin Bet and police force stopped the vehicle, after a specific alert on intentions to carry out a suicide attack.
Matzri confessed in his investigation that he drove illegal workers to Israel from Samaria, in the west Bank, and that he carried out 70 such runs in the past.
He said he received NIS 200 (about USD 44) for each worker, and that he coordinated the runs with another Palestinians. With that, Matzri claimed he did not know he was driving a suicide bomber that day.
