JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Shin Bet security agency revealed Thursday that it had cracked a terror cell centered in Shechem which had been responsible for a number of shooting attacks at Israeli’s near Yosef’s Tomb in recent months. One of the members of the terror cell was also part of the Fatah-led Tanzim terror group which was allegedly responsible for a 2006 bomb attack in Shechem that killed an Israeli soldier.
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Alam al-Ra’i, 42, a resident of Shechem, was arrested for participation in at least two shooting attacks at Israelis near Yosef’s Tomb on the outskirts of Shechem in recent months. However during his interrogation, the Shin Bet found that al-Ra’i was part of a cell that set off a bomb during a raid in the city on July 17, 2006, killing Staff Sgt. Osher Damari, 20, and wounding several other soldiers. Damari’s Yahrzeit fell yesterday, 21 Tamuz, which marks 16 years since his murder at the age of 21.
Damri (left) and Al-Ra’i
The Shin Bet said al-Ra’i was responsible for several more attacks against Israeli soldiers between 2005 and 2007 while part of the same Tanzim cell and in later years committed dozens more shootings and explosive attacks, some of which wounded troops.
The April shooting attacks in the region were directed by a terror operative in the Gaza Strip, according to the Shin Bet. Al-Ra’i received payment for working to recruit others and committing the attacks, the agency said.
An indictment against Al-Ra’i, charging him with “numerous serious security offenses, above all with the murder of the soldier Osher Damari” was to be filed later Thursday, the Shin Bet said.
Tanzim was affiliated with the PA leader’s Fatah party and was active during the Second Intifada in 2000-2005 and for some time afterwards. Its leader, Marwan Barghouti, is serving five life terms in jail for orchestrating deadly terror attacks.