19 residents of Beit Fajjar indicted for rock-throwing, firebombing attacks on Israelis in recent months
Israeli security forces in recent months broke up three Palestinian terror cells operating near the West Bank city of Hebron, police said Wednesday.
Members of the cells, 19 residents of the town of Beit Fajjar, have been accused of launching multiple rock and firebomb attacks at the nearby settlement of Migdal Oz, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
The suspects used makeshift weapons to launch projectiles at the settlement from a distance, then quickly returned to the village before Israeli security forces could respond, Samri said.
According to the police, a months-long investigation into the attacks led to the indictment on terrorism charges of the 19 Beit Fajjar residents.
The suspects, who include several minors, confessed to carrying out the attacks during interrogations with security forces. The identities of the suspects were not released.
Hebron has been a flashpoint in the recent wave of Palestinian stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks that has swept the country since October.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs, shared by Jews and Muslims who both revere it as the final resting place of the biblical patriarch Abraham and his kin, has been a particular source of tension in the city.
The last multi-casualty terror attack was perpetrated by two Palestinians from the Hebron-area of village of Yatta, who earlier in June opened fire inside a busy Tel Aviv restaurant, killing four and wounding over a dozen others.
As reported by The Times of Israel