Report: Shin Bet has concrete warnings of imminent attacks
Shin Bet, the IDF, and Israel Police will also form a joint body to counter Palestinian incitement online
Amid an anti-terror crackdown in response to a weeks-long terror wave, Israeli security forces have concrete warnings of imminent attacks, and also foiled other planned assaults, Israeli media reported Friday.
According to an unsourced Channel 12 News report, Israel’s domestic security service Shin Bet is working to prevent several “hot warnings of further attacks.”
In recent days, Shin Bet has reportedly questioned some 200 Arab-Israelis identified as being linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group - arresting 15 and issuing warnings to the rest.
A separate Channel 13 News report said security forces have a list of 300 suspected IS supporters in Israel, and have arrested 45 of them.
The assailants of two of the recent attacks - a stabbing and car-ramming in Be’er Sheva that killed four people, and a shooting in the northern Israeli city of Hadera in which two police officers were killed - had suspected ties to IS.
Channel 12 said Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the Israel Police would form a joint body to counter Palestinian incitement online as well.
Further indicated in the Channel 13 report was concern among security officials that the IS affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula south of Israel could launch operations against the Jewish state.
On Friday, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi vowed to “act in every way to stop” the terror attacks, while Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel “will overcome them this time too.”
Israel is ramping up security measures in response to the terror wave, deploying additional forces in the West Bank, at the Gaza border, and in major cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv amid concerns of heightened tensions during the month of Ramadan.