Three armed Palestinians stopped near West Bank settlement with rifle
IDF soldiers continued to comb the area following the arrests in order to ascertain if any had managed to flee from security forces.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMUpdated: NOVEMBER 6, 2018 18:13IDF soldiers during activities in the West Bank(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)
The IDF arrested three Palestinian suspects near the West Bank settlement of Mevo Dotan Bet on Tuesday evening.According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, one of the men was caught with a hunting rifle. All three were transferred for questioning to Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency.IDF soldiers continued to comb the area following the arrests in order to ascertain if any had managed to flee from security forces.While there have been significantly less vehicular attacks as well as stabbings and shooting attacks towards IDF forces and Israeli civilians in the West Bank they remain a significant threat.Earlier on Tuesday a 37 year-old Palestinian woman from the West Bank village of Yatta tried to stab a Border Policeman at a gas station near the settlement of Kfar Adumim. According to police, security officials were alerted to her after she walked into a food stand in the station and refused to leave.When security forces arrived she pulled out a pair of scissors and ran towards the officers. She was shot by police and transferred to Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Hospital in moderate condition.A day earlier a Palestinian man was shot by an IDF officer near the settlement of Kiryat Arba after he tried to stab Israeli civilians and an officer.Also on Tuesday the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security forces announced that Israel thwarted 480 terror attacks over the course of the year."In the past year we have managed to thwart 480 attacks, arrested 219 Hamas cells and thwarted 560 attempts by lone terrorists. We also succeeded in thwarting cyber attacks and espionage against Israel,” said Nadav Argaman during a security assessment in front of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.According to Argaman, the reality in the West Bank is “very deceptive” with Hamas trying to carry out terror attacks with guidance from Gaza, Turkey and Lebanon.
"In the West Bank, the reality is very complex. We can discern a relative calm, but this quiet is deceptive, underneath the surface, the area is bubbling, Hamas is trying with all its might to carry out attacks," he said, adding that "the reality in the West Bank in which Israeli citizens are able to live their lives is the result of the very strenuous activity of the entire Israeli security establishment.”
