חיילים ב צוריף מחבל מוחמד פקיה מ בית חוסל צה"ל
Photo: AFP
Two attackers in Mark murder had been released from Israeli custody
The Shin Bet had no intel on the terror cell responsible for the drive-by earlier this month; in the current wave of terrorism, 39 have been killed and 291 injured; reportedly, many attacks have been thwarted.
The Shin Bet had no intelligence on the terror cell that murdered Rabbi Michael "Miki" Mark in a drive-by shooting earlier this month, even though two of its members served long prison sentences in Israeli prisons.
A day after the attack that claimed Mark's life and left his wife and two of his ten children wounded, the Israeli intelligence agency was able to connect the two—Mohammed Fakih and Mohammad Amaira—and even arrested four accomplices from the Hebron area that helped in the execution of the attack and in hiding them after it.
Troops raid Surif in search of terrorist
Amaira drove the vehicle out of which Fakih opened fire at the Mark family car. He was imprisoned in Israel for four years for his involvement in a shooting attack near the Fawwar refugee camp at the end of the second intifada, and released in 2010.
From top left, clockwise: Mohammad Amaira, Mohammed Fakih, Muaz Fakih, Sahib Fakih. Background: The house where terrorist Mohammed Fakih barricaded himself.
Amaira, who has been a member of the Palestinian security forces over the past few years, planned the attack on the Mark family as part of a local cell rather than as part of Hamas or Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.
Fakih, who was killed in the village of Surif inan overnight IDF raid, was the one who fired the deadly shots. A member of Islamic Jihad's military wing, he was imprisoned in Israel from 2006 to 2010 after working to set up an explosives lab. The weapon that he used in the attack was a modified rifle, the likes of which are produced in West Bank lathes in large amounts. They are usually sold for intra-Palestinian criminal activity.
The Surif raid was the climax of the three-week-old manhunt during which IDF forces from the Nahal Brigade and special forces, commanded by the officer responsible for the Hebron Brigade, Col. Itzik Cohen, carried out detentions and searches both for persons and weapons in several villages around Hebron. Recently, the car and gun used for the attack were found in Hebron.
39 killed, 291 injured
Shin Bet sources have emphasized that in recent years, and especially since the commencement of the current wave of terrorism in October 2015, dozens of terrorist attacks in the West Bank have been thwarted, including roadside shootings by local cells and organizations belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Cell leader Mohammed Fakih
From October 1, 2015, until July 27, 2016, 317 terrorist attacks and significant attempts at attacks have taken place. Thirty-five Israelis, three foreigners, and one Palestinian have been murdered in those attacks. Two hundred ninety-one persons have been injured.
Inside the Green Line, ten attacks have been carried out by ten terrorists. In the West Bank, 268 attacks have been carried out by 270 terrorists. In Jerusalem, 44 attackers carried out 39 attacks. At this point, 180 stabbings, 97 shootings, 32 car-rammings, and eight other kinds of attacks have taken place.
The Shin Bet also reported regarding the time period of October 1 to May 31 the following: In 2015, 117 shooting attacks were prevented, and 62 in 2016. In 2015, 17 kidnappings were thwarted, and nine were in 2016. Twelve suicide attacks were prevented last year, and a further eleven this year.
