Israel arrests Palestinians 'recruited by Hezbollah' via Facebook

Shin Bet says Hezbollah was reaching out to Arab Israelis through Facebook to recruit them to carry out terror attacks

JERUSALEM: Israel's Shin Bet security service announced Tuesday it has arrested a network of Palestinians allegedly recruited via Facebook by Lebanon's militant Hezbollah movement to attack Israelis.

"Along with the orders to carry out shooting attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli targets, the agents were ordered to help recruit more (Palestinians) for the organisation's activities," a Shin Bet statement read.

In one case, a Hezbollah agent had used Facebook to recruit a resident of Qalqilya who in turn recruited four others from his city in the north of the occupied West Bank, it said.

The five allegedly began gathering intelligence on Israeli army activities in the area and to conduct weapons training, before being arrested in June.



Shin Bet also said a Gazan recruited by Hezbollah through Facebook recruited three Palestinians from the West Bank who had started to train and plan attacks.

The four were also arrested before carrying out any action.

The nine Palestinians have been charged in a military court in the West Bank, the agency said, without giving a date.

The Shin Bet said Hezbollah was also reaching out to Arab Israelis through Facebook in an attempt "to recruit them to carry out terror attacks".

"Hezbollah is determined to continue encouraging the recent terror events from a distance and in an attempt to not let its involvement be seen," the Shin Bet said.

A wave of deadly unrest has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October.

The violence has killed 219 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP tally.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.

In January, Israel announced the arrest of a five-member cell based in Tulkarem in the West Bank, recruited online by Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel fought a devastating month-long war in 2006 against Hezbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

The powerful Shia Muslim group has targeted Israeli army patrols along the border in southern Lebanon in response to strikes against its members, most recently on January 4.