Hamas has been recruiting minors in the West Bank to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens and soldiers, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Monday.
Two Palestinian minors, including a 16-year-old, were arrested by the Shin Bet last month. During their investigation, it was found that they had been recruited by Hamas over the Internet to carry out terrorist attacks, the Shin Bet said in a press release.
Their contact with Hamas in the Gaza Strip took place “frequently and over several months” on various social-networking sites, the Shin Bet said, adding that they were recruited by Bilal Kardi from Hamas’s cyber unit.
The two minors were expecting to receive weapons, ammunition, uniforms and money to carry out shooting attacks and kidnappings in the West Bank for Hamas. They tried unsuccessfully to manufacture pipe bombs, the Shin Bet said.
They were asked to carry out various tasks for the group, such as collecting information on settlements, including photographing Bat Ayin and Kfar Etzion, and providing maps and gathering points of soldiers in the area.
In return for their attacks, Hamas promised that they would be paid and that it would take responsibility for their actions.
They were indicted in the Juvenile Military Court earlier this month.
“The investigation illustrates the extent of Hamas’s borderless efforts to promote terrorist attacks and terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank while exploiting minors and harming their families,” the Shin Bet said, adding that it would “continue to work to thwart Hamas’s efforts in the Gaza Strip to establish a terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank to promote terrorist attacks in Israeli territory and undermine regional stability.”
The Gaza periphery has been somewhat calmer than in past years, but there has been an increase in terrorist attacks in the West Bank from 70 in July to 82 in October, with the majority being firebombs thrown at Israelis.
Fewer threats in the West Bank and Gaza Strip allow the IDF to focus on those in the North from Iran and Hezbollah, but it continues to monitor the two areas with concern, senior IDF officers have said.