News / Palestine

Israel arrests six Islamic Jihad fighters over planned attack on Lieberman

Sunday, 18 February 2018 3:01 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 18 February 2018 3:01 PM ]

Israeli forces arrest a Palestinian protester near the Huwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on December 13, 2017, as protests continue in the region amid anger over US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli military forces have detained six members of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement in the central part of the occupied West Bank on the allegation that they were planning to carry out attacks against the Tel Aviv regime’s minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman and other Israeli officials.

Israel's internal spy agency, Shin Bet, announced in a statement that the detainees were active in Bethlehem, located about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds, sought to carry out shootings against Israeli civilians and military forces.

Some of the arrested Palestinians were allegedly planning to target Lieberman's vehicle, when he traveled to his home in Nokdim settlement south of Bethlehem.

Shin Bet statement said the suspects had been “trying to obtain explosives to make a bomb, and even reached out to … elements in (Gaza) for funding.”

Israeli minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman gives a statement to the press at an Israeli army base near Re'im along the Gaza Strip border on December 19, 2017 after meeting officers and representatives of the cities around the besieged Palestinian enclave. (Photo by AFP)

“Upon failing to acquire the materials, they decided to create a fake device to receive recognition for their action and enable further attacks,” the statement claimed.

Back in 2014, Shin Bet said Israeli forces had apprehended members of a group affiliated to the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, who were seeking to kill then-foreign minister Lieberman by firing a rocket-propelled grenade at his convoy.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

This file picture shows Palestinian prisoners at Megiddo Prison in northern Israel. (Photo by AFP)

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions in Israeli jails.

According to reports, at least 13 Palestinian lawmakers are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities. Nine of them are being held without trial under administrative detention.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk