Israel Matzav

Security forces foil plot to assassinate Lieberman, weapons shipment into Jerusalem

Late Thursday night, Israel Radio reported that the General Security Service had foiled a plot to assassinate Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman using rocket propelled grenades.

According to the indictment, the three were planning to buy RPG missiles and then launch them at the foreign minister's car, in hopes that the attack would stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

The terrorist cell was headed by Ibrahim Salim Mahmoud Zir, 37, a senior member of Hamas who resides near Bethlehem and who served several prison terms in Israel on charges of terrorism.

Zir enlisted his brother, Ziad Salim Mahmoud Zir, 35, and another Hamas terrorist by the name Adnan Amin Mahmoud Tzabih, 31. They admitted to being recruited to help carry out an attack against a senior Israeli figure.

In addition, Zir turned to senior Hamas terrorist Ibrahim Yusuf al-Sheikh, 50, a resident of Bethlehem who is known for his past involvement in Hamas terrorist activities, and asked him to help him in obtaining RPG missiles.

The three terrorists were caught while conducting surveillance on Liberman's security guards near his home in Gush Etzion community of Nokdim.

They were arrested in mid-August by security forces after one member of the squad was caught trying to buy the missiles.

Also on Thursday, a shipment of Christmas decorations headed for Jerusalem from the Ashdod port was found to contain a deadly arsenal of weapons for delivery to Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

Two containers intercepted by authorities at the southern port were packed with 18,000 fireworks, 5,200 commando knives, 5,500 tasers, 4,300 tasers concealed in flashlights, 1,000 swords and several thousand other "cold" weapons.

The lethal cargo was hidden under a layer of Christmas decorations, and had been shipped in all the way from China.

I wonder how many of those fireworks would have been bought by Jews for Purim. Maybe that practice ought to stop too. 

And I guess that China hasn't gotten out of the terror financing business yet.

Labels: Ashdod port, Avigdor Lieberman, China, Jerusalem, Palestinian terrorism, Purim, weapons shipment

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:27 AM