Israeli policemen. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – Members of a Hamas terror cell who planned to detonate a roadside bomb against an Israel military convoy in Judea and Samaria have been apprehended as part of a larger group of Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) said.

The Hamas cell was part of a group of 15 Palestinians from the Palestinian village Bayt Ur a-Tachta, who were arrested by the Shin Bet for their involvement in roadside attacks, including Molotov cocktails and rocks, against Israeli drivers on Route 443 outside of Jerusalem.

According to the Shin Bet, Masab Ibrahim Badran, 27, who was one of the 15 apprehended, confessed to forming a Hamas terror cell and that its members had practiced assembling an explosive device.

Route 443, which runs through Judea and Samaria for about 10 miles, is one of only two major roads that connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Roadside attacks on Israeli drivers on Route 443 as well as other roads in the region have increased in recent months. Israeli police, concerned about the upsurge in violence along the route, recently ruled it off limits to Israeli government ministers.