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Itongadol.- The Shin Bet has uncovered a Jewish terror cell that carried out attacks against Palestinians, a gag order lifted on Wednesday revealed. The Shin Bet and Israel Police have arrested in recent weeks seven right-wing activists involved in the cell.
The seven, which includ an Israeli soldier, were said to be inspired by the firebombing of a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Duma, which took place in late July 2015 and claimed the lives of three Palestinians. The Shin Bet said that they were aware of the possibility that they would cause injury to people.
The attacks included arsons and the throwing of a tear gas grenade into a Palestinian home. Some of the suspects confessed and reconstructed the attacks, and also incriminated their accomplices.
The Shin Bet said it was interrogating a number of suspects, most of them from the settlement of Nahliel in the West Bank. Members of the Shendrofi family, a family of 17 children from Nahliel, are
suspected of being at the heart of the case. The father of the family, Yigal, is a rabbi identified with the extreme right wing. Among them are two minors, aged 16 and 17, and a 19-year-old IDF soldier, whose identity was prohibited for publication under a Military Court gag order. The three, along with two others, Itamar Ben Aharon and Michael Kaplan, both in their 20s, are from Nahliel. Another suspected cell member is Pinhas Shendrofi, 22, from Kiryar Arba.
suspected of being at the heart of the case. The father of the family, Yigal, is a rabbi identified with the extreme right wing. Among them are two minors, aged 16 and 17, and a 19-year-old IDF soldier, whose identity was prohibited for publication under a Military Court gag order. The three, along with two others, Itamar Ben Aharon and Michael Kaplan, both in their 20s, are from Nahliel. Another suspected cell member is Pinhas Shendrofi, 22, from Kiryar Arba.
The most serious incident for which the Jewish terror cell is being blamed was the throwing of a tear gas grenade into the home of a Palestinian family in December. The attack was carried out while the investigation of the arson attack in Duma was still under way. The head of the Palestinian household was awakened by irritation to his eyes from the gas and managed to get the baby of the family out of there. IDF gas grenades are generally not lethal but the gas could have posed a danger to an infant.
The Military Police arrested a soldier from the Netzah Yehuda battalion on suspicion of supplying the canister. The soldier has refused to talk under interrogation but others have implicated him as allegedly taking part in the incident.
"This is a positive sign that the security forces are taking Jewish terror against Palestinian seriously," Rabbis for Human Rights said in response, but added that other abuses of Palestinians still remain untreated.
"Unlike these attacks that receive a high media coverage, dozens of attacks of Palestinian farmers and incidents in which [they] are being removed from their lands… we see a clear incompetence of the security forces and sometimes even direct or indirect assistance to the attackers."
The human rights group added that inappropriate measures were being used against the suspects, such as denning them of legal counsel, and should be looked into. "Even a positive step cannot rely on improper procedures," the statement said.