Three Palestinians believed to be planning a terrorist attack in Jerusalem were arrested early Tuesday, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency revealed.
The suspects—ages 15, 16, and 23—are all residents of Nablus. There were arrested by a joint military, police, and Shin Bet task force in the eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber.
The arrests followed intelligence suggesting that the three Palestinians had boasted about planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, Israel’s Channel 10 reported. Security forces set up roadblocks around Jerusalem ahead of the raid on the trio’s hideout in Jabel Mukaber. The Shin Bet called the raid “routine.”
Israel’s Channel 2 reported that investigators believe the three Palestinians, who were apparently waiting for a weapons delivery at the time of their arrest, were planning an attack combining firearms and explosives. Israeli security forces are on high alert nationwide during the seven-day Passover holiday, especially in Jerusalem, where Muslim-Jewish tensions on the Temple Mount have made the holy site particularly volatile.
