Palestinian teen arrested in Lod, suspected of planning terror attack
16-year-old from West Bank’s Balata refugee camp entered Israel illegally, is thought to have wanted to avenge recent Israeli raids in Nablus area
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A West Bank Palestinian teenager allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack was detained by security forces in the central city of Lod on Friday morning, the Shin Bet security agency said.
According to the Shin Bet, the 16-year-old suspect from the Balata refugee camp, adjacent to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, entered Israel illegally and sought to commit a terror attack “in the immediate time frame.”
The agency said the teenager was not affiliated with any known terror groups, but was suspected of planning to carry out an attack over recent Israeli military raids in the Nablus area.
He was detained by Shin Bet officers and members of the elite Yamam counterterrorism police unit in light of intelligence provided to forces by the agency and the Israel Defense Forces.
The Shin Bet said he had been taken for further questioning.
The agency did not identify the suspect, but Palestinian media named him as Mohammed Sawalmeh.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been elevated for the past year, with the military carrying out near-nightly raids in the West Bank, amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.
Many of the raids have focused on Nablus, including an attempted arrest operation on Tuesday which left one Palestinian dead in the Balata camp; and the demolition of a gunman’s home in the northern West Bank city on Thursday, which left another Palestinian dead.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 20 people and left several more seriously hurt.
According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 118 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that span, most of them during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under more questionable circumstances.
