Shin Bet Arrests Top PA Official in Shooting Attacks

The Shin Bet released for publication Monday that an indictment on charges of attempted murder was drawn against Zakaria Zubeidi, a senior Palestinian Authority official, who together with an Israeli Arab conducted a shooting attack against an Israeli bus. The two were responsible for two shooting incidents, one in November 2018 and the second in January 2019. B’chasdei Shamayim, no one was injured in either of the shooting incidents.

The two had planned further attacks together, with at least one, which they planned for December of last year, canceled because of bad weather. All the shooting attacks were at Israeli buses carrying civilians. The two scouted out sites for the attacks and traveled to the site of attacks using an official Palestinian Authority vehicle, used by Zubeidi for his work in the PA’s “prisoners ministry.”

Accompanying Zubeidi in the attacks and also detained along with him was Tarak Barghouti, a resident of Ramallah who is also an Israeli citizen. He is an attorney, and is even a member of the Israeli Attorneys Association. The two were arrested in February, and in recent days confessed to the shooting attacks, leading to the issuing of the indictment against them.

A Shin Bet official said that “the matter is very serious, as it is a senior PA member who is involved, along with an Israeli attorney. The two carried out serious terror attacks, using an official PA vehicle. The Shin Bet, Israel Police, and IDF will continue to intervene to prevent such attacks and hunt down those responsible for them.”