Itongadol.-A Hezbollah recruitment ring in the West Bank and Gaza has been found and dismantled by the Shin Bet security services in partnership with the IDF and Israel Police.
The Shin Bet announced that it has broken up a Hezbollah recruitment ring aimed at recruiting operatives in the West Bank. Eight people have been arrested.
Assisted by the Israel Police and the IDF, the Shin Bet found that Hezbollah operatives in Gaza and in Lebanon were using Facebook to try and recruit the operatives. The arrest of these agents has prevented the Shiite terror group from mobilizing to attack targets inside of Israel.
Hezbollah has been working tirelessly to recruit agents in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza with the goal of carrying out terror attacks against Israeli targets. Along with sending information on how to commit effective shooting attacks or suicide bombings against Israelis, the Hezbollah agents were also instructed to recruit others to Hezbollah as well.
An investigation revealed that Hezbollah attempted to recruit Israeli-Arabs and West Bank Palestinians via several different pro-Palestinian Facebook pages which were recognized by Israeli security services.
After speaking with potential candidates via Facebook messenger, the Hezbollah recruiters would ask the candidates if they were willing to work for the terror group and assist them.
The first cell was found in Qalqilya. They were instructed to carry out an attack against an IDF patrol in the area. The head of the cell was Mustafa Kamal Hindi, 18, who was recruited by Hezbollah in 2015 via the Facebook group "Filasteen al-Hura." The page is virulently anti-Israel, and expresses support for Islamic Jihad.
Hindi then recruited several others from Qalqilya: Hamas member Mohammad Daoud, 22; Taher Nofel, 22, who supplied explosive material to be used in the creation of IEDs; Islam Sha\’ib, 21, who surveiled and collected information on Israeli patrols in the Qalqilya area; and Bara\’a Hamed, 19, who assisted in constructing the IEDs.
In addition to collecting intelligence on Israeli patrols, they also practiced shooting with hunting rifles, and practiced building IEDs.
Investigations revealed that the cell was in contact with a Hezbollah operative code named "Bilal" via Facebook, and later via direct emails. "Bilal" also sent the cell encryption software so that the cell could secretly communicate with Hezbollah.