Israeli security officials this week revealed the recent thwarting of a massive Hamas terror assault on central Israel.
In October of last year, the Israel Security Agency (ISA, known in Israel as the "Shin Bet") began investigating a large Hamas cell established in the Samarian town of Nablus.
In the ensuing months, the ISA discovered that the cell was planning an unprecedented terrorist offensive.
"In recent months, the Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police uncovered a Hamas terror cell, extraordinary in its size and level of activity, which operated in the Nablus area," read an ISA statement released this past Sunday.
The cell was made up of over 20 operatives, most of whom have now been arrested. They were planning to carrying out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, bomb attacks in Tel Aviv and the Jewish settlement of Itamar, and shooting attacks across the northern West Bank.
All of the aforementioned attacks were thwarted, and by the end of April, nearly all the cell members had been taken into custody.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said these revelations again proved why Israel can't simply surrender its biblical heartland for a questionable peace agreement.
"Hamas is trying to harm us both from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria. That is the reason that we will continue to maintain security control over the entire area west of the Jordan," said the Israeli leader in a prepared statement.
