An Islamic Jihad member who planned a 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing during Operation Pillar of Defense was killed in an exchange of fire with IDF soldiers at a cave hideout near the West Bank village of Bil'in, security forces announced on Tuesday.
Muhammad Asi, of the Palestinian village of Bet Likia, plotted the bombing of a bus that injured 29 civilians in Tel Aviv, the IDF said.
Launching an operation to apprehend him early on Tuesday, the Shin Bet, IDF, and Israel Police circled the cave, a senior army source said, and came under fire. Soldiers fired two LAV anti-tank missiles in response, killing Asi.The Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] spent months tracking down his location, before homing in on his hideout in the cave, where he had been staying for several weeks.
Hours before the armed clash, two of Asi's "soldiers," Islamic Jihad members Muhammed Sais, of the Binyamin region of the West Bank, and Abduallah Abu-Asi, of the village of Na'ama, were arrested and taken for questioning.
"We reached Asi after receiving intelligence information," the IDF source said. "He began firing on our soldiers from the cave. Following an exchange of fire, he was killed. Our forces are still operating in the area, and the investigation is continuing," he added.
Weapons were recovered from the cave afterwards.
Addressing the general increase in Palestinian violence in the West Bank, the source said the army was "doing a lot" to prevent a rise in motivation for terrorism from turning into attacks.
"We need to adapt quickly to stop the momentum of violence," the source said. He added that the IDF has enough resources in the West Bank sector to prevent violence from spiraling out of control. "Our focus is on carrying out security operations quicker, and adapting ourselves to a quickly-changing reality" he said. It would be wrong to view each terrorist incident as isolated, even if there is no direct organizational linkage between them, he added.
In December last year, Muhammad Abed Mafarja, 18, a resident of Taiba, was charged with dozens of counts of attempted murder for planting a bomb on board the bus.
Originally from the West Bank, Mafarja was able to move within the Green Line and acquire Israeli identification documents after a family reunification.
Twenty-six people were injured in the November 21 bus bombing in Tel Aviv, which took place a week after Operation Pillar of Defense began in Gaza.
Jerusalem post
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