VIDEO - Police on Tuesday afternoon lifted the heightened alert level declared in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area after conducting several arrests following a warning on Palestinians' plan to carry out a terror attack.
Following the suspects' arrest in southern Tel Aviv, the police closed businesses on the street, removed all the people from the place and alerted firefighters and Magen David Adom rescue forces. A police sapper examined a suspicious object found in the area.
Roadblocks were set up in the entrances to and exits from Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, causing traffic jams.
Police arrested illegal workers in the Geha Road area and detained Palestinians with stay permits for questioning. Palestinians were also detained near Tel Aviv's central bus station.
At first the police blocked traffic to the city completely, but for fear of heavy traffic jams they decided to selectively check the entering vehicles. The ground forces are being aided by an aerial search.
Arrests conducted on rooftop (Photo: Avi Cohen)
MDA Director-General Eli Bin raised the emergency services' alert in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area to the highest possible level following the warning. The alert in the Sharon region was raised to the second highest level.
Ahuviya, who works in Tel Aviv, told Ynet, "I left Ben-Gurion Airport at 6:25 am and arrived in the city at 7:30 am. I heard there were warnings. I lost half an hour, but it seems like I managed to avoid some of the traffic.
"However all the people I was supposed to meet today called to postpone. Inside Tel Aviv, I see several police cars on Rothschild Boulevard and there's a lot of traffic."
Workers detained on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Blvd. (Photo: Yaron Brener)
Recently, a source in the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, threatened to resume suicide bombings in Israel.
"The past few months have made the Israelis forget the suicide attacks," the man told Ynet, "and if they think the fence in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank will prevent the attacks, we promise we have ways to remind the Israelis that the attacks will return to the heart of Israel and that the killing will not only take place in the Strip."
Sources in the Palestinian Authority hinted recently that Hamas was interested in escalating the situation in order to affect the election results in Israel.
First published: 07:05, 12.02.8