10 Palestinians Arrested, Suspected of Planning Attack on Navy Patrol Off Gaza Coast
Written by TPS on April 04, 2018
Prosecutors filed an indictment Wednesday against 10 Gazans last month on suspicion that they were planning to attack an Israel Navy vessel.
In a joint statement announcing the arrests, the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and IDF Spokesman’s Unit said the men, residents of the city of Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, were arrested on March 12 after a coast guard patrol stopped a Gaza boat that had violated the naval blockade on the Strip by leaving the Gaza fishing zone. The navy said the fishing boat was gathering information about Israel’s marine movements.
The statement said that Shin Bet and Israel Police interrogators believe that 24-year-old Amin Sa’adi Mohammed Jama’a, a fisherman from Rafah, is a terrorist affiliated with the Islamic Jihad group and was acting on orders from the group’s leadership as part of an operation to use several boats in order to plan the attack.
Jama’a told Shin Bet interrogators that one boat was to serve as a decoy to attract the navy’s attention, while a second boat would fire a Cornet missile at the navy vessel. A third boat would then approach the damaged ship in an attempt to kidnap Israeli sailors. He is also believed to have gathered intelligence about naval movements, including troop numbers and weapons on board navy vessels.
The arrest is the latest in a string of operations by intelligence and operational security forces to thwart potential attacks, including the demolition of several tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border fence and several more land infiltrations.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman praised the intelligence service, writing on Twitter that “once against the IDF and Shin Bet have prevented a terror attack against our forces. The challenges on the Gaza border are wide-ranging and complicated. Israel has (a powerful army upon which) to rely.
“I hope that this time our friends on the left won’t demand a commission of inquiry,” Liberman said.
