A great disaster was avoided Monday in Jerusalem, when an explosive device was found in the bag of a 25-year-old Palestinian at the city's Tzahal Square.
Police officers operating a metal detector noticed a Palestinian walking toward them, carrying a bag. They demanded that he undergo a security check, and then he told them he was carrying an explosive device.
Scene of incident (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
The police arrested the man, handcuffed him and took him into interrogation by interrogation by security forces at the Jerusalem Police's minorities department.
In his interrogation, the man said that he planned to carry out a terror attack, and according to estimations the target was the center of the capital. It is still unclear whether he planned to detonate himself with the device or leave it in the area and flee.
Following the incident, the police closed the entire area and dispatched a helicopter to the air in an attempt to locate the terrorist's accomplices. Sappers were dispatched to the area to examine the device.
The security establishment currently holds dozens of warnings on plans to carry out terror attacks in the home front, in an attempt to expand the fighting arena and hurt more civilians.
Concrete warnings
Earlier Monday, during an operation aimed at detaining wanted Palestinian terror suspects in the Nablus casbah, a Haruv battalion fighter
was killed
and another six soldiers were injured, including the son of the Central Command chief.
Brigadier General Yair Golan, Commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, later said that ""There is a very concrete alert in our hands on an intention to launch a terrorist attack from Nablus, and some of those arrested overnight were linked to that. We also have information on movements in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Bethlehem to carry out terror attacks."
"According to intelligence in our hands, there are many attempts by terror organizations in the West Bank to open up an additional front, in order to decrease pressure in the south of the country and in the north," he added.
The commander added that "many things happen in Samaria which are not heard about, and that's a good thing. I can't promise that this will go on, but our activities day and night are very intensive. They are as determined as ever to carry out attack within Israel. Just two weeks ago we thwarted an attack when we caught members of an Islamic Jihad cell in the Ariel area."
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