Investigation Reveals Hizballah Directed Palestinian Cell to Kill Israelis

Despite being bogged down in the Syrian Civil War, Hizballah continues to focus on expanding its terrorist infrastructure to multiple fronts in an effort to target Israel. Hizballah's entrenchment in the Golan Heights – at Iran's behest – has been well documented. Now, the Lebanese terrorist organization is trying to set up operations and recruit Palestinians in the West Bank to launch attacks against Israelis.

Last week, Israeli security authorities foiled a Palestinian terrorist cell planning a suicide bombing and shooting attack under Hizballah's command. Five Palestinian men, none of whom belonged to the terrorist organization, were arrested. The terrorists were also threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces in violent riots during the past year.

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the operatives confessed that Hizballah's Unit 133 directed the operation and that Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah recruited the cell's leader, Muhammad Zaghloul.

Jawad Nasrallah asked Zaghloul to recruit terrorists into a cell and scout potential targets for attack. Through encrypted email exchanges with a Hizballah handler, Zaghloul received instructions for conducting suicide-bombing attacks and he even offered a plan to kill an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer. Zaghloul admitted that the cell conducted surveillance of the officer and requested $30,000 to purchase arms to kill him.

The operatives received $5,000 from Hizballah, which covered the purchase of a sub-machine gun and magazine. The plot to shoot Israeli soldiers was likely in its execution phase since the two terrorists were arrested in possession of the firearm.

Unit 133 is a Hizballah division devoted to creating terrorist networks among Palestinians, but has failed to secure a major presence in the West Bank. Nevertheless, it is likely Hizballah will continue to seek making inroads in the Palestinian territory and recruit terrorists to attack Israelis.

Acting on Iranian orders, Hizballah was able to direct and coordinate dozens of Palestinian terrorist cells during the second Intifada. From 2002 to 2007, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hizballah directed and coordinated dozens of Palestinian terrorist networks, mostly cells that were part of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Throughout the 1990s and beginning of 2000s, Hizballah sent Lebanese operatives with foreign passports to Israel via Europe in order to support Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups devoted to sabotaging the Oslo Peace Process and damage the Palestinian Authority.

Similar to Hamas' recent attempts, Hizballah is trying to escalate the ongoing wave of Palestinian violence into a full-blown violent uprising by introducing an organized terrorist dimension to a phenomenon that has been largely characterized by individual initiatives.

Reader comments on this item

Time to eliminate the heads of the snakes

Apr 2, 2016 14:57

Time after time, in an unceasing effort, the proxies of Iran have been infiltrating to their degree possible, the defences of Israel. These attempts are foiled only by the constant counter-intelligence of the strong elements of Israeli efforts. As has been said about terrorism; those who are the targets of terrorism have to be accurate 100 per cent of the time, while the terrorist has to be accurate only once. It is a given that Israel has many methods in place to foil the terrorists but, to my observations, does not have a strong plan for pre-emptive action to eliminate the leaders of terrorism. Following past terrorist actions, such as in Munich in 1973, there was compiled an action group from Israel to seek out and destroy the terrorists who struck the Israeli athletes who were slaughtered; an action that was not only very successful, but which also sent a message to the leaders of terrorism that there would be retribution for their acts. Isn't it time again that those terrorism leaders feel the pre-emptive actions of Israelis to defang the coiling snakes around Israel? Their identities are known and their whereabouts are fairly easily determined. Using the abilities of the Massad and other intelligence organizations, coupled with the ability of IDF sections, these heads of terrorism can be dealt a death action. I know that Israel is a democracy and democracies don't usually act proactively but instead wait until being struck. But the terrorist forces surrounding Israel are becoming more numerous every day. Can Israel afford to wait until a potentially overwhelming force of Iranian coordinated forces, ready to pounce on Israel, strikes? Now that Israel is strong and has the flexibility to act, I feel that action to cut off the heads of all terrorist snakes should be undertaken; with or without consideration of acting 'democratically.' Can Israel afford to wait to react, rather than acting proactively?

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