Shin Bet foiled hundreds of terror attacks in last year, Lapid says

The Shin Bet security service thwarted hundreds of terror attacks this year, Prime Minister Yair Lapid says at an awards ceremony for the organization’s agents who excelled in intelligence operations in 2021.

“The Shin Bet foiled hundreds of attacks since the beginning of the year. Shooting attacks, explosives, suicide [attacks], and kidnappings,” Lapid tells assembled agents and staffers from the Shin Bet and other intelligence and defense agencies gathered for the biennial event at the Shin Bet’s northern Tel Aviv headquarters.

Illustrative. IDF soldiers during terror suspect arrest operations in the West Bank, August 10, 2022. (IDF)

One operation recognized at the event involved the arrest of more than 60 Hamas members in a major operation in the West Bank in late 2021, disrupting alleged plans for major terror attacks “in the immediate term,” according to Lapid’s office. Dozens of weapons and explosives were seized in the operation, which sought to crack down on Hamas efforts to build a terror infrastructure in the West Bank, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

“Intelligence organizations from around the world come here regularly to learn from the Israeli Shin Bet how to fight terrorism and threats that no Western country faces. The advanced technology that is developed in the service allows the State of Israel to always be one step ahead of the enemy,” Lapid adds.