The Palestinian Authority (PA) foiled a large and sophisticated terror attack against IDF forces in Hebron over the weekend. Palestinian security forces stopped the attack in its final planning phase, The attack was set to cause a large number of deaths and injuries.
The target was to be the Hasam Shoter checkpoint, which separates the Palestinian and Israeli-controlled parts of Hebron. A Palestinian security official told Ynet that an explosive device connected to a 12 kilogram cooking gas container was planted on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint.
The official mentioned that the attacker intended to approach the checkpoint and throw a Molotov cocktail at the soldiers present, then run into the Palestinian side. He intended to then trigger the device via remote control once the soldiers were close to it.📷IDF destroys massive Hebron IED
The intended terrorist is reportedly a resident of Qalqilya, and it is unclear whether he was working as part of an organization or alone. A second source told Ynet that the squad the attacker-to-be belongs to is based abroad, but could not say whether it was in Jordan of another country.
Following the arrest, PA security forces passed the information along to Israeli forces, whose sappers performed a controlled demolition of the device. The demolition was documented by Palestinian civilians, and the scope of the explosion indicated a large-scale potential attack.