Israel announces arrest of West Bank ‘Hezbollah agents’

By Anees Bargouthi

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency on Tuesday announced the arrest earlier this year of a number of "terrorist" operatives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who it claimed had been recruited by Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah group.

According to a Shin Bet statement, the "operatives" were arrested in June in a joint Israeli army-police operation.

The cell’s alleged leader, 18-year-old Mustafa Kamal Hindi, was arrested in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, the intelligence agency asserted.

According to Shin Bet, Hindi was initially recruited by Hezbollah via Facebook and later given instructions by email.

The security agency also claimed Hindi had successfully recruited four other Palestinians from Qalqiliya, after which the group began gathering information on Israeli army patrols and training with hunting rifles.

The alleged operatives were arrested in June of this year before they were able to carry out planned attacks against Israeli army patrols, Shin Bet claimed.