PA, Israeli forces foil bomb attack near Hebron

Palestinian security passed on information to Israeli forces on a large bomb that they suspect was targeting the IDF in the Hebron area, Palestinian security sources said Sunday.

The bomb, made up of an explosive charge attached to a large gas canister, was hidden next to the Mishtara checkpoint on the outskirts of the southern West Bank city.

The bomb was found on the side of the checkpoint controlled by Palestinian security.

It was safely detonated by sappers from the Israel Police bomb squad on Friday night, Israeli officials confirmed.

A video of the detonation posted by the Ynet news site shows a massive fireball rising up into the night sky, as Palestinian onlookers yell “Allahu akbar.”

Despite a diplomatic stalemate, Israeli and Palestinian security forces cooperate in the West Bank.

Officials on both sides see the cooperation as key to fighting violence and keeping the Hamas terror group in check.

Palestinian officials said that they had arrested a suspect, a Palestinian from the northern West Bank village of Salfit.

He had been studying for the last two years in one of the Balkan nations, and may have been recruited to terror there, the source said without giving further details.

The Hebron area has been a hotbed of violence over the past year, which saw several months of intense fighting and Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Between October 2015 and October 2016, 36 Israelis, two Americans and an Eritrean national were killed in stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks.

According to AFP figures, some 238 Palestinians, a Jordanian and a Sudanese migrant have also been killed, most of them in the course of carrying out attacks, Israel says, and many of the others in clashes with troops in the West Bank and at the Gaza border, as well as in Israeli airstrikes in the Strip.