JERUSALEM: Israel said yesterday it had arrested two Palestinians from East Jerusalem who were planning to carry out attacks for Al Qaeda with the help of foreign suicide bombers posing as tourists.
The men were recruited by another Al Qaeda agent in the Gaza Strip, said Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency — the second Israeli report in as many months suggesting the militant network was taking root among Palestinians.
Hamas Islamists governing Gaza rejected the spy agency’s account as “silly fabrications”, saying it was an attempt to justify Israeli military strikes in the territory.
The two Palestinians, who could travel freely in Israel because of their Jerusalem residency, were recruited over Facebook and Skype, Shin Bet said in a statement. According to the agency, the Palestinians planned to provide bomb vests to foreign militants posing as Russian tourists for attacks on an Israeli convention centre in Jerusalem and the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The detainees were further accused of planning to kidnap a soldier and shoot up an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank.
REUTERS
