It was cleared for publication on Thursday that the Shin Bet, in collaboration with the IDF and police, arrested 14 men for involvement in the blast on a bus in Bat Yam last week.
Four of the suspects are senior Islamic Jihad operatives, one of whom in Palestinian police training, residents of Bethlehem.
The security forces arrested Sahada Taamri, 24, Hamadi Taamri, 21, Sami Harimi, 20, and Yosef Salamah, 22. The other 10 suspects were involved in the minor details of the plan.
The Shin Bet's investigation revealed that during the last several months the group decided to execute a massive terror attack in Israel. The explosive was prepared by the Taamri brothers and Salamah, who used two kilograms of improvised detonation material, nails and screws, and had a switch attached to a cellphone to activate the bomb remotely.
Harimi was given the bomb, hidden in a black bag, which he took with him on December 22 to the southern Hebron Hills, where he went
with other illegal aliens to infiltrate into Israel. Harimi then got into the car of a Bedouin man, an Israeli citizen who helps Palestinians illegally residing in Israel, and the two drove to Jaffa.
After praying in a Jaffa mosque, Harimi got on bus no. 240, laid the bomb, got off a few minutes later, and then called the cellphone that was attached to the bomb, thus triggering the explosion. The bomb was placed in a pressure cooker, similar to the bomb in last year's Boston Marathon.
Harimi was arrested several days later in Bethlehem, admitting his part in the attack, and said that the group of terrorists wanted to execute a larger attack in Tel Aviv a few days after the Bat Yam explosion, but their arrests hindered their plans.
Commanding officer of the Judea and Samaria Brigade, Brig. Gen. Tamir Yadi, told Ynet that "over the past few days we were after that cell of four operatives, including the one who planted the explosive device."
"I'm upset and scared that we didn’t know about the cell, but it is possible that with hundreds of cells planning attacks there is one that we didn't about it," he said.
One of the Taamri brothers led the security forces to a cache of explosives near his house.
Upon entering the structure where the explosive was assembled, Israeli forces "found 25kg of explosives meant for further attacks," according to the IDF official. "This group is knowledgeable on preparing explosive devices."
According to the official, security forces were familiar with several of the suspects.
Reportedly, The Taamri brothers had already been in prison in Israel, Sahada was in training to become an officer with Palestinian police, and Harimi worked at a restaurant in Jaffa, even though he had no work permit.
Security forces noted that the Bedouin who drove the perpetrator may have done so innocently and was not aware of his passenger's terror plans.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the Shin Bet, IDF, and police forces for "a timely capturing of a terror cell that laid an explosive device on Bat Yam bus."
Netanyahu addressed the fact that one of the suspects was in officer training with the Palestinian police noting that "this is further proof of Palestinian Authority personnel's direct involvement with terror. It's time that Abu Mazen stops celebrating with released murderers and lead his people into the way of peace."
Despite the attempted terror attack, the IDF official said that there is no clear indication that there is a security escalation and that
"We can't ignore the successive events in Judea and Samaria during the past two years, but there is no specific alertness of terror in the Israeli home front."
Security forces said that the Islamic Jihad terror cell in Area A worked out of Bethlehem, and that it was relatively new. The two Taamri brothers built the device together, and Harimi was the one who knew the best ways to sneak into Israeli territory.
Two hours after the bomb exploded last week the Shin Bet had already detained some of the suspects.
Analyst Ron Ben-Yishai said that the use of the pressure cooker was used to intensify the blast, and that this was the first time the Palestinians used a pressure cooker.
One of the workers in the Jaffa restaurant where Harimi is supposed to have been working said he knows all the workers there, and that Harimi didn't work there.
A policeman was lightly injured in the blast in the city of Bat Yam in Israel's center last week.
Meanwhile, The IDF launched airstrikes on three Gaza Strip targets. Military sources reported that rocket launchers and observation posts were destroyed.
The strikes, the sources noted, were in retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli territory.
On Thursday evening a Qassam rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip and exploded in an open area at the Sdot Negev Regional Council.
The rocket hit away from residential area and a color red alert was therefore not activated. No injuries or damage were reported.
On Monday a rocket exploded between two residential communities in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. No injuries or damages were reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon vowed to retaliate any attack from the strip. "We will strike those who open fire and strike those who advocate them. No one will be immune," Netnyahu said last week.
The IDF stated that "Terror groups in the strip have set a goal to harm Israeli citizens. The IDF will continue to work diligently and as much as it takes against any source that executed terror against the State of Israel."
The IDF statement added: "The terror group Hamas is the address and it is the accountable entity."
And finally, on a lighter note, a cache of automatic weapons was discovered at the residence of the Palestinian Ambassador to Prague after he was killed by an explosion, turning the bizarre accident into a full-blown diplomatic incident yesterday.
The unregistered weapons, said to include assault rifles, could have armed a ten-man combat unit, according to local reports. They were discovered by Czech police investigating the death of Jamal al-Jamal, 56, on New Year’s Day after he opened a safe that had recently been moved to his newly-built residence on the outskirts of the capital.
Investigators were keeping an open mind on whether the safe was booby-trapped by a protection mechanism or was storing an explosive device.
Police sources said that Mr al-Jamal probably mishandled a bomb he found in the safe, according to the local newspaper Respekt.
Czech government sources confirmed that the weapons were illegally held, unlike the handguns that embassies routinely register for close protection of senior diplomats and politicians.
A Palestinian official said that staff handed the weapons to Czech authorities after retrieving them from an old sack and that had not been touched since the Cold War.
The Vienna Convention, which covers diplomatic relations between states, does not set out arrangements for diplomats holding weapons. The Czech Foreign Ministry said that diplomats’ weapons were subject to local laws on arms, which require registration and licensing.
Mr al-Jamal was a member of the ruling Fatah party of President Abbas. He became Ambassador to the Czech Republic in October and moved to his new residence after Christmas. Czech and Palestinian investigators have ruled out a terrorist attack for the explosion.
“The blast was the result of inexpert handling of an explosive,” Martin Vondrasek, the Prague police chief, told public radio. “We have gathered many pieces of evidence; we secured weapons that will be subject to expert evaluation. I cannot say specifically what weapons we have found. We can say they have not been registered in the Czech Republic.”
Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, described the blast as a work accident. He told Voice of Palestine radio that Mr al-Jamal opened the safe “without consulting with anyone” but that no crime had been committed. “The safe was old, and it was made in a way that if it is being opened in a wrong way, an explosive device attached to its door would explode, and this is what happened,” he said.
However, Nabil al-Fahel, the Palestinian embassy spokesman, said that the safe was in almost everyday use.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Friday, January 3rd, 2014 news round-up from the Disputed Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web site at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and me George Rishmawi