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Security forces deployed at a Bat Yam house where a suspected terrorist was arrested on Tuesday. (Motti Kimche)
Last update - 00:00 20/02/2007
Police thwart large-scale terror attack planned for Tel Aviv
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Security forces on Tuesday thwarted a large-scale terrorist attack planned for Tel Aviv. Forces arrested a Palestinian resident of the West Bank and three other people at a Bat Yam house after receiving intelligence information from the Shin Bet security service.

A senior member of the Islamic Jihad said the group had planned the attack and had sent one of its operatives to execute it. Two of the other Palestinians arrested at the Bat Yam house were identified as collaborators and all three were illegally residing in Israel.

Following his arrest in Bat Yam, the suspect led investigators to the nearby city of Rishon Letzion, where he had hidden a bag filled with explosives. Police said the suspect confessed to planning to carry out an attack. He had apparently set out Tuesday morning from the Jenin area with the bag of explosives.
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Security sources said the attack was to have been executed Tuesday evening at the central bus station in Tel Aviv. For unknown reasons, the sources said, the suspect had hidden the explosives in a Rishion Letzion trash bin and returned to Bat Yam without them.

It is not clear whether the Palestinians arrested along with the suspect had been aware of his plan to carry out an attack.

After the suspect's arrest, police lowered security levels in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, which had been raised hours earlier due to the terror alert.

Suspecting that a suicide bomber had infiltrated the region, security forces had stationed roadblocks across Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon, particularly in the southern part of the city.

Police deployed in large numbers to search vehicles and residential yards. The alert level was also extended into Rishon Letzion.

PA officials: 3 U.S. women released after abducted in Nablus
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man released three U.S. women on Tuesday about an hour after abducting them and holding them in a village in the West Bank, a Palestinian official told Reuters.

"The girls are in our hands," Kamal el-Sheikh, governor of the West Bank city of Nablus. The women, all in their 20s, were unharmed, el-Sheikh said. No further details on their identities were released.

Sheikh said "a guy with personal demands" had seized the women shortly after nightfall and held them in a village called Kufr Kalil.

A man calling himself Hadi Saud contacted The Associated Press in Nablus and said he was the kidnapper. He demanded to be given a job in the security forces and medication for a shooting injury sustained last year, in exchange for releasing the hostages. He provided no proof that he was holding the women.

The security officials said the three women were last seen taking pictures on the outskirts of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. The officials did not release the names of the three women.

Two of the women were volunteers with a non-governmental group involved in water projects in the West Bank, and a third was a friend of theirs, a Palestinian security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source said the women had been on an outing in Nablus and were headed back in a taxi when the man kidnapped them at gunpoint, demanding the driver drive to the village.

The kidnapper, who was wounded in the leg in fighting with IDF forces, had demanded medical care and a job in exchange for the women, and officials said they would look at his case, the source said.

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, said U.S. officials were informed of the kidnappings. "We take them extremely seriously," Schweitzer-Bluhm said of the incident.

In the past, scores of foreigners were kidnapped by various Palestinian
militant groups, but usually released unharmed after a few hours.

Israeli hurt when shot near W. Bank fence
In a separate incident earlier Tuesday, an Israeli citizen was moderately wounded in a shooting attack in north Jerusalem next to the Qalandiya checkpoint.

The victim, a technician who was working on a nearby section of the separation fence, was hit by a bullet in his upper body and was taken to a nearby hospital in moderate condition
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  1.   What did he do so close to the fence....?? 17:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 20/02/07
  2.   Just goes to prove why there`s a fence 17:44  |  Dani 20/02/07
  3.   what does Tel Aviv terrorism get the Palestinians? 18:15  |  Richard S 20/02/07
  4.   My best wishes to the Israeli technician 18:15  |  KUTW 20/02/07
  5.   He should not do that, the wall is evil 18:48  |  Fritz 20/02/07
  6.   The security fence has already saved many lives 19:10  |  Murphy 20/02/07
  7.   American women kidnapped 19:10  |  David 20/02/07
  8.   Probably three Rachel Corrie-esque terror-supporting moonbats 19:18  |  Don Brewer 20/02/07
  9.   #1 19:23  |  From the Moon 20/02/07
  10.   not political 19:28  |  Paul Freedman 20/02/07
  11.   #8 Don Brewer 19:39  |  Fussion 20/02/07
  12.   7 David 19:42  |  Alih Babah 20/02/07
  13.   Kidnapper`s Demands 20:21  |  bimmer 20/02/07
  14.   Some, especially the poster from Berlin, will 21:02  |  Anat 20/02/07
  15.   Why go to dangerouse places? 21:39  |  Brod 20/02/07
  16.   Fritz, son of Multi-Schpritz 21:55  |  Montana 20/02/07
  17.   sorry I didn`t properly read, of course there was something to th 22:01  |  christoph 20/02/07
  18.   Israel excuses 22:16  |  Mozie 20/02/07
  19.   Bravo the IDF 22:17  |  KUTW 20/02/07
  20.   Omar Abu-Rob: not worth it 22:17  |  Paul Freedman 20/02/07
  21.   I was waiting for that -- #4 `My best wishes...` 22:34  |  Colin Wright 20/02/07
  22.   Amira Hass and those bothersome roadblocks 22:35  |  KUTW 20/02/07
  23.   Re #14 `Some,especially the poster from Berlin...` 22:39  |  Colin Wright 20/02/07
  24.   Apartheid fence? Nope! Security fence! 22:43  |  Richard S 20/02/07
  25.   The security fence will not heklp 22:43  |  Roberta 20/02/07
  26.   #6 Murphy 22:45  |  Ian 20/02/07
  27.   Re `from the moon` #9 22:46  |  Colin Wright 20/02/07
  28.   I thought roadblocks were for oppression purposes only! 22:52  |  Paging Jimmy Carter 20/02/07
  29.   Who Shot 23:14  |  Noa 20/02/07
  30.   Where is Clickfool 23:20  |  BRL 20/02/07
  31.   where is the `war` against terrorism and their supporters?? 23:20  |  Rob 20/02/07
  32.   islam`s goal nothing else 23:22  |  sam 20/02/07
  33.   #18 Roberta 23:27  |  Greg 20/02/07
  34.   # 16 and # 5 23:47  |  Not fritz 20/02/07
  35.   12 Year Old Pal Girl Shot By IDF 23:48  |  Tupac 20/02/07
  36.   #11 to Fussion 23:49  |  Larry53 20/02/07
  37.   # 8 A Moonbat Question 23:51  |  Tony Anthony 20/02/07
  38.   don brewer re #8 23:54  |  Phil 20/02/07
  39.   Get used to it... 23:54  |  Petka 20/02/07
  40.   Roberta - that fence has already paid for itself 23:55  |  William 20/02/07
  41.   Pro-terrorism supports are suspiciously absent... 23:59  |  William 20/02/07
  42.   Alih Babah - if you can`t see the defeat.. #12 00:07  |  William 21/02/07
  43.   #37 On arrivjng in Paradise Infidels, 00:11  |  VLAD 21/02/07
  44.   Tupac - Pal girl shot #35 00:12  |  William 21/02/07
  45.   Gideon Levi`s explanation 00:14  |  Amos 21/02/07
  46.   Phil - #38 Corries convictions might be worthy of applause 00:20  |  William 21/02/07
  47.   re #41 `Pro-terrorism supports` 00:57  |  Colin Wright 21/02/07
  48.   To #21 - wait till Mexican start shooting 01:02  |  Mike 21/02/07
  49.   arresting them is not enough!! 01:12  |  vik 21/02/07
  50.   The criminal immorality of violence directed at civilians 01:13  |  Najdt 21/02/07
  51.   All life is valuable, But.... 01:20  |  Wally 21/02/07
  52.   #5 Fritz - The Wall must be enhanced 01:33  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  53.   Punishment for Sucide Bombers? 01:34  |  Abby 21/02/07
  54.   #21 Colin Wrong 01:38  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  55.   Kudos to the IDF, Police and Shin Bet 01:41  |  BradL 21/02/07
  56.   #29 Roberta 01:44  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  57.   #35 - Tupac 01:49  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  58.   #47 Colin Wrong again 01:56  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  59.   Abby, here`s how israel punishes failed suicide bombers 03:22  |  Voice of Reason 21/02/07
  60.   Law of return, to the tents 04:06  |  Neil Golan 21/02/07
  61.   Colin Wright - You would not think this way if... 04:30  |  Moises 21/02/07
  62.   Wath? 06:18  |  Claudio Golzman 21/02/07
  63.   TUPAC 06:29  |  Claudio Golzman 21/02/07
  64.   ALLAHH is the Great 06:44  |  Claudio Golzman 21/02/07
  65.   Only savages can kidnap! Look at these "freedom-fighters" who 07:42  |  Vittorio 21/02/07
  66.   Congratulations Police force. 07:50  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 21/02/07
  67.   Colin Wright wrong again 07:55  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 21/02/07
  68.   If shooting people is a protest 08:05  |  Efox 21/02/07
  69.   having a Hrop censors? 08:10  |  sleepytimeintelaviv 21/02/07
  70.   I am still waiting to read condemnations from 08:58  |  Anat 21/02/07
  71.   To Colin Wright 09:03  |  Jack 21/02/07
  72.   Colin Wrong yet again - Gift Horses 13:28  |  * BEN JABO 21/02/07
  73.   Point to ponder? 01:25  |  ian deal 22/02/07
  74.   #73 Ian Deal - Intelligence Services 17:52  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  75.   #73 Ian Deal - Intelligence Services 17:52  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  76.   You Missed the Point Ben 23:27  |  ian deal 22/02/07
  77.   Ian Deal 03:10  |  * BEN JABO 23/02/07
  78.   Margie in Tel Aviv, get a real job #99 01:15  |  Philip 25/01/08
  79.   Margie in Tel Aviv - the reality 01:18  |  Philip R, Tel Aviv 25/01/08
  80.   "retalitory" or "aggressive defence" 19:44  |  harri 25/01/08
  81.   How did the Three Palestinian Suspected Terrorists enter Israel 15:34  |  Suzanne .immigrant 02/12/08
  82.   Counter Terror 09:29  |  Marc Kahlberg 28/03/09
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