The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency announced on Wednesday that it had disrupted a large-scale Hamas cell that was based in the Abu Dis area of the West Bank, near Jerusalem. Israeli security forces arrested 25 Hamas operatives, most of them students at the Al Quds University campus in Abu Dis. During questioning, it emerged that the cell was led by a 24-year-old Palestinian from the Kalkiya area, Ahmed Azam, the Shin Bet said. Azam was recruited by Hamas in Gaza, the intelligence agency stated. Azam "was in continuous contact with his operators in the Gaza Strip," the Shin Bet said. "In accordance with instructions passed on to Azam, he recruited a number of additional operatives studying with him at the Abu Dis University," it added. Raw materials that are banned for sale were allegedly seized and additional suspects involved in their sale were arrested in the course of the investigation. Suspects also include a 19-year-old Beduin Israeli citizen, Fahdi Kian, a resident of Hura in the Negev, who confessed to agreeing in October 2015 to join the cell. An additional Hamas cell operating in the Bethlehem area was uncovered in the investigation as well. The Shin Bet said some of its members studied at the Abu Dis university. Suspects included Aisa Shuka, a 19-year-old resident of Bethlehem, who helped transfer funds from the Gaza Strip. "This episode uncovered and reiterates the involvement of Hamas's military wing in Gaza and its consistent actions to orchestrate operations in Israel and Judea and Samaria," the Shin Bet claimed.
