Security forces announced on Tuesday that they uncovered a PFLP terror cell in the West Bank that had been plotting to kidnap an Israeli to secure the release of the organization's leader, Ahmed Sa'adat, who is serving a 30-year jail sentence in Israel.
The terror cell was spread out over Ramallah and Palestinian villages in the Binyamin area of the West Bank, security forces said, adding that several suspects are under arrest.
"Some of the members admitted to planning a kidnapping," the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency]" added.
The Agency named Ashraf Abu Aram, 26, and Muhammad Zeitoun, 26 - both from Ramallah - as the two main suspects. Abu Aram allegedly founded the cell.
"Abu Aram got in touch with a weapons dealer to try and obtain two handguns and an automatic rifle," the Shin Bet said.
The suspects weighed carrying out a combined shooting and kidnapping attack on IDF forces, with the shooting designed to create a distraction. A second plan involved kidnapping an Israeli hitchhiker from the Jit Junction in Samaria, the northern West Bank.
The kidnap victim would have been taken in a van to a hideout apartment in Kafr Akab, on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Both men have been charged with conspiracy to kidnap a soldier and host of other security charges.
Two additional suspects affiliated with the PFLP have been arrested for plotting disturbances against security forces.
"The uncovering… illustrates the high motivation of terror organizations to carry out a kidnapping, with a special emphasis on the PFLP, whose members have been involved in a number of plots in the past year, and who have tried to carry out kidnappings in the West Bank," the Shin Bet added.
Sa'adat became head of the PFLP in 2001, after his predecessor was killed by the IDF. He has been convicted for the assassination of the late minister Rehavam Ze'evi.