77 ‘major terror attacks’ averted this year — Shin Bet

Yoram Cohen ends his tenure as head of the Shin Bet security service and hands the organization over to successor Nadav Argaman.

To mark the occasion, the domestic security service releases information on its activities under Cohen.

So far in 2016, the Shin Bet says, 77 “major terror attacks” have been prevented, including five suicide attacks, 10 bombings and 34 shooting attacks.

Incoming Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman (Shin Bet)
Incoming Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman (Shin Bet)

It says that 2015 saw the prevention of 239 terror attacks in all, including 12 suicide attacks, 19 kidnappings, 41 bombings and 120 shootings.

The Shin Bet says that under Cohen, it stepped up its struggle against “Jewish terrorism” and applied “various tools,” including detention without charges, in order to thwart Jewish hate crimes.

It says that so far in 2016, 34 indictments have been served against Jewish terror suspects; in 2015, 82 such indictments were filed, and in 2014 70 Jewish activists were put on trial.

Among Israeli Arabs, the Shin Bet says, five attacks planned by Islamic State cells were foiled over the last five years, and 65 members of IS were arrested.

File: Yoram Cohen, head of the Shin Bet security service, attends a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
File: Yoram Cohen, head of the Shin Bet security service, attends a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

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