Top Hamas Terrorists Arrested in Chevron

IDF soldiers overnight Wednesday arrested five top Hamas terrorists in a raid on the terror group’s infrastructure in Chevron. The arrests came a day before major riots are planned by the group to celebrate its 32nd anniversary on Shabbos. IDF officials said that the arrests were designed to prevent excessive rioting and to prevent terror attacks that the group might try to carry out.

Hamas responded angrily, promising that the riots that are to held in Yehudah and Shomron and at the Gaza border fence Friday would be especially violent. “Israel has shown that it keep attempting to interfere in internal Palestinian affairs” by arresting Hamas terrorists, the group said in a statement. “These arrests and persecution of our members will not deter us from our fight against the occupation,” it said.

On Thursday, police in Tel Aviv arrested an illegal Arab worker who had threatened an Israeli with murder. Police said that the threat came on the background of a monetary dispute between the Arab and the Israeli. The culprit threatened to break into the victim’s home and kill her unless she gave him the money he said he was owed. Police planned to seek an extension of the culprit’s remand until the end of proceedings against him.