For the Second Time in Recent Weeks: Terrorist Attempts Attack on Court

For the second time in fewer than two weeks, Border Guards Thursday prevented a suicide bombing attack at the Shomron Military Court, located near Jenin. Guards at the entrance to the court building stopped and questioned an Arab who was behaving suspiciously, and was found to be carrying a pipe bomb. The court building was cleared as sappers detonated the device in a safe manner.

The same thing happened a week ago Sunday, at the same place. The methods used were remarkably similar; in both incidents, the would-be Arab terrorist was wearing a long wintercoat. In Thursday’s incident, security officials demanded that the terrorist take the coat off. He took the coat off and attempted to hide the explosives – but officers saw the bombs and ordered the terrorist to leave the coat on the floor. The terrorist in the earlier attempted attack was wearing a coat as well, but unlike on that day, temperatures were cool enough Thursday to justify wearing a coat.

In both cases, the terrorists were 17-year-old residents of Jenin. Thursday’s attempted terrorist was taken into custody for questioning. There were no injuries in the incident. In a statement, Border Guards said that “it is clear that the awareness of officers prevented what could have been a major terror attack.”