The Mamilla Mall, near the Old City of Jerusalem, was to have been the target of a Hamas terrorist bombing operation planned for the Jewish holiday season beginning this week, Israel’s General Security Service (GSS), announced Sunday.
In cooperation with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the GSS broke up the Hamas terrorist cell that was in the advanced stages of planning a terrorist atrocity against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem.
Two men, aged 22 and 25, working as maintenance workers at the mall, have confessed to planning a terror attack at the popular shopping center by using their access to plant a bomb in a trash can during the holiday of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year that begins next Wednesday.
Mamilla Mall, which is adjacent to Jaffa Gate, is especially popular with tourists.
The terrorist operatives, who are residents of Ramallah and Jerusalem, were arrested in August.
The cell leader has been named as Hamdi Hasnin Hamdi Rumana, 24, from the Ramallah/El Bireh area.
During his interrogation, security services uncovered a weapons and explosives laboratory in Rumana's home, along with bomb-assembly instructions, and discovered that he had been in contact with a Hamas technical expert from Beituniye, as well as two residents of Ramallah, who had provided him with the chemicals and instructions necessary to assemble explosive devices.
The terrorist operatives, residents of Ramalla and Jerusalem, were arrested in August in a combined operation of the Israel Police, Border Police, IDF and the Shin Bet security agency.
They had planned their attacks to coincide the upcoming Jewish festive period of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succot.
It was also discovered that Rumana had recruited two Arab residents of Jerusalem into his cell to help carry out an attack targeting Jews in the capital. Their possession of Israeli I.D. cards would have made it far easier to move around without being questioned.
The plan was for the two men to smuggle an explosive device into the mall and hide it in their personal lockers until the start of the Jewish festivals, when the mall would be packed with holiday shoppers. The terrorists were then instructed to plant the device, disguised as a gift box, in one of the mall's busy restaurants, or in another location with a high concentration of Israeli civilians.
In the course of their interrogations, the suspects also revealed that they planned a number of additional terrorist actions, including the kidnap and murder of an Israeli soldier. They had also planned to manufacture rockets to fire against Israeli communities near Ramallah and to fire at soldiers stationed at the busy Hizme checkpoint in northeast Jerusalem.
The three accomplices have been detained for interrogation, pending charges.
Recent attacks in which terrorists with Israeli identification planted the bombs include a bombing near the Jerusalem International Convention Center in March 2011 and a bus bombing in Tel Aviv in November 2012.
Sherut haBitachon haKlali or General Security Service in Hebrew, better known by the acronym Shabak or the Shin Bet (a two-letter Hebrew abbreviation of the name), is Israel's internal security agency.
It is one of three principal organizations of the Israel's intelligence alongside Aman (military intelligence) and the Mossad (foreign intelligence service).