Security Forces Arrest 50 Popular Front Terrorists, Preventing ‘Imminent Attacks’

The Shin Bet Security Service said Wednesday that it had in recent weeks arrested and questioned some 50 members of the Popular Front terror group who had planned major terror attacks against Israel. Among the terrorists arrested, some of them senior members of the group, were those who had planned the terror attack at the Danny Spring outside Dolev in August. Murdered in that attack was Rena Shnerb, Hy”d, and injured were her father Rabbi Eitan Shnerb and brother, Dvir Shnerb.

The arrests and subsequent interrogation of the terrorists yielded a great deal of information about the attacks and weapons that the group had been amassing for its attacks. Weapons ranged from handguns to submachine guns, along with bombs and tens of thousands of rounds of bullets. The investigation into the murder of Rena Shnerb led to the arrests, and the revelation of important information about attacks past and projected by the group, the Shin Bet said.

In a statement, the Shin Bet said that the investigation “prevented the carrying out of terror attacks that were to take place in the very near future, and those attacks would have cost many lives. The investigation revealed just how imminent these attacks were, as proven by the large amount of weapons discovered.”

Five terrorists had been previously arrested in connection with the attack on the Shnerbs. Among the detainees was 44-year-old Samar Mina Salim Arbid, a resident of Ramallah and a top Popular Front terrorist in the Ramallah area. He has been arrested and served prison sentences for security crimes, including leading riots and building firebombs during the second intifada. Officials said that the bomb that killed Rena and injured her brother and father was particularly heavy, with over three kilos (almost seven pounds) of explosives packed inside. The bomb was hidden behind a rock, set at an angle that ensured maximum injury. The bomb was similar to many that were set during the second intifada, the officials said.