Israel claims to arrest Hamas ‘cell’ in West Bank

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM

Israel’s domestic intelligence agency on Thursday announced the arrest of a Hamas "cell", members of which, it claimed, had been plotting attacks on Israeli military targets.

In a statement, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency identified six Palestinians who, it said, had been arrested in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron district.

The agency named Ibrahim Abdallah Ghneimat -- who is currently serving a life sentence for attacks carried out in the 1990s -- as a key figure in the alleged plot.

The suspects, the agency went on to assert, had been tracking Israeli military movements in the area with a view to staging shooting attacks and/or abductions.