Heavily armed Palestinians caught at West Bank junction

Two Palestinians were arrested Thursday in the northern West Bank after Israeli forces discovered them carrying three pipe bombs and other weapons, raising fears they may have been planning a terror attack.

The Palestinians, both in their 20s, were transferred to a Shin Bet security agency facility for further questioning after being stopped at Tapuah Junction, near the large settlement of Ariel, Israel Radio reported.

The two were found carrying a makeshift handgun and several knives, as well as the three pipe bombs, officials said.

It is still unclear whether the two Palestinians were planning to carry out a terror attack, and if they were, whether it was to take place at the site or in a different location.

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It is also not yet clear whether the two were members of a terror organization or if they acted on their own accord.

The arrests came ahead of the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, which this year falls alongside the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, raising security concerns.

Ahead of Yom Kippur, the IDF will implement a general closure of the West Bank, an IDF statement issued Thursday read. The closure, which will begin late Thursday night and will end late Saturday, was commissioned following directives from Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Israeli security forces have said they will deploy additional personnel in East Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Hebron over the holiday.

Earlier Thursday, two people were lightly injured in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur after their vehicle was pelted with stones. The two were rushed to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center for emergency treatment, according to Channel 10 News.

The Tapuah junction, which is located near the Palestinian city of Nablus, has been the site of several terror attacks in the past. Over the past few months, security forces say they have thwarted a number of planned attacks at the site.

In May, Border Police forces at the junction discovered a Palestinian man wearing an explosives vest, in an apparent suicide bombing attempt. Several days later, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Border Police forces near the site after apparently opening fire at them. The man’s family, however, maintained he was innocent and had arrived at a checkpoint near the junction in order to receive a shipment of cellphones for a store he owns.

Last year, Evyatar Borowsky, 32, a father of five from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar, was murdered when a Palestinian man at the junction stabbed him multiple times.