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Israel says cracks Palestinian al Qaeda cell in Jerusalem

23 January 2014 04:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israel said on Wednesday it had arrested two Palestinians from East Jerusalem who were planning to carry out attacks for al Qaeda, including on the U.S. Embassy, with the help of foreign suicide bombers posing as Russian tourists, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The men were recruited by another al Qaeda agent in the Gaza Strip, said Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, the second Israeli report in as many months suggesting the militant network was taking root among Palestinians.

Hamas Islamists governing Gaza rejected the spy agency's account as "silly fabrications", saying it was an attempt to justify Israeli military strikes in the Palestinian territory.

Security experts say al Qaeda and its global agenda have had only a fringe appeal among Palestinians as they pursue a more nationalist conflict with Israel.

Shin Bet said the two Palestinians planned to provide bomb vests to foreign militants posing as Russian tourists for attacks on an Israeli convention center in Jerusalem and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. It said they also planned to kidnap a soldier and attack an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank.

The pair, who could travel freely in Israel because of their Jerusalem residency, were recruited over Facebook and Skype, Shin Bet said in a statement. It said one of the men was arrested as he prepared to travel to Syria, via Turkey, to undergo weapons training.

Shin Bet did not say if the Palestinians had lawyers or how they might plead in open court. Civil rights groups have often accused the Shin Bet of using duress against terrorism suspects.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said: "Obviously we have been in contact with the Israeli government regarding these threats... The U.S. Embassy was not just the target, but other targets were mentioned, I believe."