Police: Hezbollah’s attack plans thwarted

Posted on Aug 8, 2012 in Top News | 0 comments

Hezbollah’s plans for attacks in Israel were thwarted with the arrest of eight Israeli Arabs who allegedly smuggled C-4 explosives into Israel, police said.

The Nazareth District Court on Wednesday charged eight Israeli Arab residents of Nazareth and the border town of Ghajar, of which half is in Lebanon and half in Israel, with assisting in the infiltration of the explosives, the Hebrew language daily Maariv said.

The charge sheet states that a number of residents from Ghajar smuggled into Israel 44 points of C-4 explosives in a bag on June 5. The bag was transferred to a drug dealer in Nazareth and found by police in mid-July, the newspaper said.

A senior Shin Bet official said the explosives could have been used against any type of target in Israel.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg of Hezbollah’s efforts against Israel … the attempted attack here and the recent attack in Bulgaria are all carried out by the same organization,” The Jerusalem Post quoted the official saying.

The official said such an operation would require the approval of the top Hezbollah echelon, possibly Hassan Nasrallah, The Post said.

“We are revealing one of the most dangerous security affairs we have encountered in recent years,” Roni Atiah police commander of the northern district told reporters. He said police and Shin Bet officials conducted an investigation that lasted 40 days before the suspects were arrested, Maariv said.

Israeli security officials have yet to track down suspects who were supposed to carry out the attacks, the Post said.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International