Israeli authorities busted a large-scale plot by Hamas groups in the West Bank to launch widespread terror attacks in Israel and topple the Palestinian Authority, the Shin Bet security intelligence agency announced Monday.
Hamas headquarters in Turkey, which organized the terror plot, hoped deadly violence would weaken Palestinian territories so that militants could carry out a coup and overthrow Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“The terrorists planned to undermine security and launch a third intifada,” a senior Shin Bet source told the newspaper. “They planned to carry out a coup and topple the Palestinian Authority.”
Ninety-three Hamas militants were arrested in recent months after Shin Bet launched an investigation into the terror plot in May. At least 70 are expected to be indicted.
Shin Bet has confiscated dozens of weapons, including 30 firearms, seven rocket launchers and ammunition, as well as more than $170,000 to fund the attacks.
Shin Bet said the plot was thwarted in the early stages but some of the attacks were planned to take place in recent weeks to open up a second front of fighting amid the conflict in Gaza, authorities said.
Salah Al-Aruri, who heads Hamas’ West Bank infrastructure, was identified as the mastermind behind the terror plans, according to Shin Bet.
After spending years in jail on terrorism-related charges, Al-Aruri organized the plot in 2010 and recruited other members, including students studying chemistry and engineering and those with computer programming skills.
Al-Aruri set up Hamas cells in nearly 50 Palestinian cities.
“The exposure of this infrastructure, one of the largest we have encountered, underlines the high danger posed by Hamas’ overseas headquarters,” Shin Bet said in a statement.
The Hamas cell in Gaza had no involvement in the plot, sources told the Jerusalem Post.