5-Mar-13: Terror cell members arrested, and again it's an unjustly freed Shalit Transaction terrorist who leads them

En route to an Israeli prison [Image Source]

From a distance, it's possible to live with the delusion that the terrorist attacks on Israel's civilians are at an end or at least in some sort of quiet mode. But as we keep reporting here, the truth is far more dangerous and threatening than that misconception.

Via a statement on the IDF website posted yesterday (Monday), it's reported that at some undisclosed time in the recent past the Shin Bet working with the army exposed the workings of a terror cell in the Hebron area.

Several individuals were arrested, and as in previous such busts it turns out that the ring leader was (a) operating by remote control from far away and (b) had been set free in the unjust and deplorable Shalit Transaction in October/December 2011.

Three terrorist names are given in the IDF bulletin: Manjed Musa Diab Junidi, 23, said to be the leader and recruiter of the cell, released in the 2011 Shalit deal and deported to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip;  Muhammad Hassan Rajab Abu Sahidem, 25, who confessed to preparing pipe bombs and shooting and explosive devices in preparation for an attack on Israelis; Anas Rateb Ahmad Davik, 23, a foot soldier in the cell. The three are charged with membership of an illegal organisation, conspiracy to commit murder, and with firearms and explosives offences.

Junidi was being directed from Gaza by Bassel Hashem Abd al-Fatah al-Haymuni (at AFP, they call him Bassel Haymouni; at Times of Israel, Basel Himouni) who remains free. Al-Haymuni was prisoner number 329 in Phase One of the Shalit Round of released murders and other terrorists. He had been arrested in 2004 and convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 23 years imprisonment, of which he served a mere seven, and now he is well and truly back in business.

These arrests are neither rare nor isolated. The same IDF report mentioned above lists several additional recent intercepts of Israel-bound Palestinian Arab terrorists:

• February 2013: Terror cell that broke into IDF base, assaulted soldier, stole gun is apprehended [more]
• January 2013: Security forces arrest terror cell attempting kidnapping attacks [more]
• December 2012: The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror network that carried out the Tel Aviv bus bombing which injured 26 Israeli civilians is busted [more]
• December 2012: Arrest of terror cells from Beit Fajr responsible for a shooting attack on an Israeli civil bus in the community of Migdal Oz [more]
• November 2012: Security forces arrest two separate terror cells from Bethlehem and the village of Bita, responsible for organized rock-hurling attacks that resulted in severe injuries to Israeli citizens [more]
• November 2012: Members of terror cell from the village of Sinjil, near Ramallah, who executed several fire bombings, are apprehended [more]
• October 2012:  Hamas attempt to set up regional terror headquarters in Hebron is frustrated; an extensive Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Ramallah is uncovered and 30 Hamas terrorists are arrested [more]

Scenes from an ongoing war.