Israeli policemen. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said it has uncovered a plot by Hamas to launch a series of terror attacks in the West Bank against Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) targets in order to topple PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the Shin Bet, an operation to thwart the plot took place over the last several months and has resulted in the arrests of 93 Hamas operatives, including 46 operatives who have been interrogated so far. Additionally, the Shin Bet recovered more than $170,000 and confiscated a large amount of heavy weapons and ammunition.

The Shin Bet said the operation was planned by Salah al-Aruri, who is based in Turkey and leads Hamas’s foreign operations.

Al-Aruri, a former West Bank resident who has been behind many other West Bank terror plots, has also been linked to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in June. The kidnapping triggered a widespread Israeli crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, leading to the arrest of hundreds of Hamas operatives there. It is unclear if the two plots are related.

In 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza from the PA in a bloody offensive. But in May, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party signed a unity agreement, leading to the collapse of Israel-PA peace talks.