Israel Says Foiled Hamas Kidnap Plot
Israeli authorities said on Wednesday that they had arrested three members of the Islamist militant group Hamas group on suspicion of planning to kidnap an Israeli in the West Bank.
A statement from domestic security agency Shin Bet named the men as Muad Ashtayeh, born in 1991, Mohammed Ramadan and Ahmed Ramadan, aged around 19, all from the village of Tell, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
It did not say if the Ramadans were related.
It alleged that Ashtayeh recruited the other two men and together they acquired a handgun, a taser and tear gas.
They carried out surveillance on major junctions and hitchhiking stops used by soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank, it charged.
"The plan was to disguise themselves as local settlers in order to get an intended victim to get into the assailants' vehicle," the statement alleged.
It said the kidnap was planned for the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which began on Tuesday evening.
The Shin Bet said it discovered the plot during October and November but did not specify when the suspects were arrested.
It said the ultimate aim was to use the hostage as a bargaining chip for the release of Palestinian militants held in Israeli prisons.
It alleged that the suspects were directed and funded by Hamas headquarters in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by the Islamist movement.
Israel also arrested a number of senior Hamas members in the West Bank overnight but the authorities did not announce any connection between that roundup and the alleged kidnap plot.
Those arrested included Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of the Islamist movement. He was arrested in Ramallah, a Hamas statement said on Wednesday.
Yousef is a member of the largely defunct Palestinian parliament elected in 2006 and was previously jailed between 2012 and 2014.
A Shin Bet spokeswoman told AFP: "He was arrested because of his involvement in encouraging and directing Hamas activity in the West Bank."
Yousef's son, Mosab Hassan Yousef, gained prominence in recent years after a film was released detailing his spying for Israel, called "The Green Prince."
Yousef disowned his son after he admitted to carrying out espionage against Hamas.
The arrests come amid tensions over US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last week, leading to days of protests and clashes in the Palestinian territories.