A Hamas terror cell was in the advanced stages of a plot to explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at Israel before Palestinian Authority (PA) officials uncovered and broke up the cell, according to PA officials who spoke to The Times of Israel.
During intensive activities near Hebron, in which PA security authorities arrested Hamas activists at the city's university, officers uncovered a terrorist network in the advanced stages of planning to launch a UAV into Israel. Multiple suspects were arrested and the plot was foiled. Investigation of the cell found that Hamas operatives had already run several test flights on the drone, and had intended to attach explosives to it in order to strike targets in Israel.
The news comes amid concerns that Hamas is making concentrated efforts to rebuild its terror infrastructure in the West Bank. Observers had already outlined how the Palestinian terror group – stymied by Israeli counterterrorism efforts along the Gaza Strip and prohibited by Egypt from operating inside the Sinai Peninsula – may try to use the West Bank as a staging ground for conducting a spectacular terror attack against Israel. Recent weeks have seen a general upsurge in violence in the West Bank, with three Israelis killed and a young girl shot outside her parents’ home. Early Friday a makeshift grenade was thrown at an Israeli school bus in the northern West Bank.
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