The pipe bombs seized by security forces last month following the arrest of five Palestinian terrorists, including three dentists. Photo: Shin Bet.

JNS.org – Five members of a Palestinian terrorist cell led by a dentist were apprehended by security forces last month, the Israeli Shin Bet security agency revealed Monday. The terrorists — including three dentists — had carried out a pipe bomb attack in which an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer was seriously wounded.

Members of the IDF’s Duvdevan special forces unit arrested the five terrorists in the Palestinian town of Hizme, north of Jerusalem, in the days following the May 10 attack.

The Shin Bet named Dr. Samer Mahmoud al-Halabiyeh, 36, a dentist from the Palestinian town of Abu Dis, as the cell’s leader. Halabiyeh reportedly implicated himself in the attack, citing “the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque and harming Palestinian children” as the motive.

Shin Bet agents also arrested Halabiyeh’s father, 64-year-old nurse Muhammed Halabiyeh; his brother Dawoud Alhabiya, 42, also a dentist; his cousin, Shadi Ahmed Muhsan, 32; and a third dentist identified as Daganeh Jamil Nabhan, 36.

The suspects led interrogators to an additional 56 pipe bombs they had planned to use in future attacks. The explosive devices were neutralized by military sappers.