Members of a Hamas terror ring in the West Bank, run from the organization’s headquarters in Turkey, sought to carry out an array of major attacks, including on Jerusalem’s main soccer stadium and its light rail line, the Shin Bet security service said Thursday. 
 
 The Shin Bet announcement confirmed a Times of Israel report last week that said Israel had arrested dozens of members of a Hamas terror network operating throughout the West Bank. The network, Palestinian officials said, was funded and directed by Hamas officials in Turkey who have set up a de facto command center in the Muslim country. 
 
 More than 30 Hamas operatives were arrested during the month of September, the Shin Bet said Thursday. The majority were recruited while studying in Jordan and trained in either Syria or the Gaza Strip, which they entered via tunnels from Sinai. 
 
 The Shin Bet said the ring was preparing to kidnap Israelis in Israel and abroad, enter Israeli villages, detonate car bombs, perpetrate roadside attacks, and execute a major terror attack in Teddy Stadium, where the Israeli soccer team Beitar Jerusalem plays its home games. 
 
 The Shin Bet asserted that the plan was evidence of an “indefatigable” desire on Hamas’s part to rehabilitate its terror infrastructure in the West Bank and to tug Israel into a sharp military response, which might indirectly lead to the toppling of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s regime, which is “one of Hamas’ goals.” 
 
 The network was similar in its operational characteristics to one uncovered in August during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian officials said last week, adding that according to information received from Israel, this terror ring was even larger. Its operatives had already attempted several attacks against Israel, they added, but they had all failed. 
 
 As with the previous network, the man behind the terrorist grouping was Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas leader who was deported from the West Bank to Turkey in 2010, the sources said. 
 
 Arouri, they said, built up and funded the network, and has effectively established a Hamas command post in Turkey which is leading terror efforts in the West Bank. Arouri is reportedly aided by dozens of operatives, some of whom were deported by Israel in the wake of the Gilad Shalit prisoner deal in 2011. 
 
 The officials accused Turkey as well as Qatar — the current home of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal — of enabling Hamas to operate freely within their territories to carry out attacks against Israel and undermine the Palestinian Authority. 
 
 In response to Thursday’s announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the Shin Bet and IDF for thwarting the attack, saying it was only one of multiple covert operations “against terrorists, against Hamas, which poses a threat to the existence of the nation state of the Jews and is in essence a threat to the existence of Jews in general.” 
 
 “We act day and night to protect the security of Israeli citizens and the people who are engaged in this work are deserving all praise and support,” he said in a statement. 
 
 In August, the Shin Bet said it had arrested over 90 operatives and thwarted a Hamas coup attempt in the West Bank aimed at toppling PA President Mahmoud Abbas and starting a third intifada uprising. 
 
 The Palestinian sources, however, maintained that the two networks were more concerned with carrying out attacks against Israeli military and settler targets in the West Bank. A rough Israeli response and the consequent weakening of the PA was a secondary objective, they said. 
 
 The officials added that several Hamas operatives connected to the recently uncovered network were also being held in PA detention facilities. 
 
 It appeared that the ring announced by the Shin Bet on Thursday began to unravel with a failed roadside attack on August 31, 2014. A series explosive devices that its members allegedly placed near the settlement of Reheilim were set to detonate one after another, in order to kill as many Israelis as possible, including the first responders on the scene. The Shin Bet said that intelligence work done in the wake of that failed attack enabled the organization to arrest the perpetrators and some 30 other suspects, revealing “a wealth of information about the infrastructure.” 
 
 The first recruits were chosen already in 2012 while studying in Jordan. The Shin Bet described the process of drafting, training, and organizing the recruits: At first the men were approached based on their religious ideology and individual skills, and, at times, personal acquaintance. Fresh recruits were passed on to headquarters, which decided where they should undergo training. 
 
 Abdullah Zitawi, a resident of Jordan, admitted under interrogation that he, for instance, had been inserted into Gaza three times between 2012 and 2013 and underwent weapons and explosives training there before being told, in 2014, to relocate to the West Bank and wait for further orders. Others were trained in Jordan, the Shin Bet said. 
 
 Once the operatives were inserted into the West Bank, the Shin Bet added, the Hamas officials in Turkey split them into cells and planned their deployment, with orders coming in to the West Bank via forward operatives in Jordan and Turkey. 
 
 The Shin Bet uncovered several safe houses, materials to be used for explosives, two M-16 rifles, and ammunition. 
 
 On November 20, the security organization revealed that it had arrested a Hamas cell in the Bethlehem area that sought to buy a rocket-propelled grenade and fire it at Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, a plan that, if successful, would have sent tremors through the region. 
 
 Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report. ||||| Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. 
 
 The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF thwarted a large, transnational Hamas terrorism network that was preparing to carry out an array of attacks against Israelis, the domestic intelligence agency announced on Thursday. 
 
 
 
 In recent weeks, some 30 Hamas members have been arrested in raids led by the IDF’s Duvdevan undercover unit. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Two M-16 rifles, ammunition and bomb-making equipment were seized.The network planned to target the Teddy soccer stadium and the light rail system in the capital, to carry out car bombings and kidnappings of Israelis in Judea and Samaria as well as overseas, the Shin Bet said.The nerve center of the network was situated in Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey, the Shin Bet added.Additional intended targets included infiltrations of Israeli communities, shooting and bombing attacks against Israeli traffic and military targets in the West Bank, and setting up terrorist cells in Jordan to carry out cross-border attacks into Israel.The plot, uncovered in September, involved the assembly of multiple terrorist cells in the West Bank, as well as the training of Hamas members overseas.Members of the network planted two bombs in Samaria on August 31. Neither of the attacks, which involved time-detonated explosives, resulted in injuries.The second explosive was timed to kill emergency responders, according to the Shin Bet’s investigation.Following that attack, the agency arrested dozens of suspects, and learned during subsequent interrogations that some had joined Hamas as far back as 2012, in Jordan.“They received military training, and were given missions. At the start of 2014, they moved in and began taking action. Their missions included meetings with operatives, preparing [terrorist] infrastructure, and gathering intelligence on targets,” the Shin Bet said.In Jordan, the network sought to recruit students who were friends of Hamas operatives.The network identified students who supported the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and had highly developed skills in various areas.Eventually, recruiters turned to selected prospective operatives with formal requests to join Hamas. Those who accepted came under the command of Hamas’s Turkey-based headquarters, which oversaw their military training.They were trained under the supervision of Hamas’s overseas and Gaza-based branches, in Jordan, Turkey, Syria and the Gaza Strip.Recruits reached Gaza through smuggling tunnels from Egypt, and were instructed in weapons, terrain analysis, navigation and how to keep information secret.In Turkey, they learned about various “spheres of operations, aimed at carrying out terrorist attacks within Israel, the West Bank and overseas,” the Shin Bet said.In Jordan, training included weapons handling, bomb-making and briefings ahead of attacks.At the end of their training, recruits joined various terrorist plots, in line with guidance from senior Hamas members in Turkey.Instructions arrived from Hamas commanders in Turkey to field operatives, via “forward operatives in Turkey and Jordan, who were responsible for executing the plans.”Subsequently, Hamas operatives arrived in the West Bank to carry out the attacks, as well as coordinate the smuggling of weapons and money.The operatives received instructions to recruit local terrorist cells and train more operatives, as well as to locate sites for bomb-making labs and apartments that could serve as operations centers.In August, the Shin Bet thwarted an earlier large-scale plot, headed by senior Ramallah- based Hamas commander Riad Nasser, who is under arrest.That plot was also directed by Hamas’s Turkey-based headquarters, specifically by Saleh Aruri, who commands the movement’s “West Bank sector.”Hamas funneled more than NIS 1m. into that network and purchased weapons, before the Shin Bet thwarted the initiative.Both plots “point to the high motivation of Hamas, and of Saleh Aruri, who seek to reconstruct Hamas’s military infrastructure in the West Bank, and to carry out attacks against Israeli targets,” the agency said.Such attacks would have enabled Hamas to “move the spotlight” away from the Gaza Strip, and drag Israel into a harsh response in Judea and Samaria, resulting in the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, which is one of Hamas’s central goals, it said.The Shin Bet named several key suspects under arrest, including Manaf al-Rahman Ajabara, 28, a Jordanian resident, who was recruited to Hamas while studying engineering.During questioning, he told the Shin Bet of how he underwent military training and received mission assignments from Hamas leaders to set up an infrastructure in the West Bank, recruit additional members, and carry out attacks on Israeli targets. He confessed to playing a role in setting up the bomb attacks in Samaria on August 31.Another suspect is Rajai Mustafa Amuri, 30, from Tulkarm. Amuri, who was in prison five previous times for security offenses, confessed to working with a Jordanian Hamas operative to carry out the bomb attacks in the northern West Bank, according to the Shin Bet.The agency named six additional suspects, some from the West Bank and others from Jordan, who allegedly played roles such as bomb-making, funneling funds, and setting up terrorist cells. 
 
 Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>> ||||| JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Shin Bet security service said Thursday it had uncovered a vast Hamas network in the West Bank that was planning large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem. 
 
 The Shin Bet said it arrested more than 30 Hamas militants who planned to kidnap Israelis and carry out attacks against Jerusalem's light rail and its largest soccer stadium, among other targets. It said the men were trained and recruited in Jordan and Turkey and that various arms and explosives were recovered. 
 
 While the Islamic militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is run by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 
 
 The arrests come amid Israel's worst sustained bout of violence in nearly a decade. Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the past month, including five people who were killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue last week. Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, along with deadly attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. 
 
 Hamas did not immediately comment on the arrests. 
 
 Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Shin Bet for thwarting the attacks, saying that if carried out they could have exacted a heavy toll of casualties. 
 
 "This is one operation that has been published but there are many more that remain secret," he said of Israel's intelligence work. "These foiling activities are against terrorists and against Hamas, which challenges the existence of a Jewish nation-state and the existence of Jews in general." ||||| Story highlights Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises work of security services, military 
 
 Israeli security forces say they have broken up a network planning terror attacks 
 
 At least 30 Hamas members have been arrested, Israel's security agency says 
 
 Intended targets include a football stadium and a light rail station, it says 
 
 Israeli security forces said Thursday they have broken up a wide-ranging terror plot, which would have included attacks on a football stadium, abductions and car bombings. 
 
 Authorities arrested at least 30 members of Palestinian militant group Hamas and seized rifles, ammunition and explosives, said the Shin Bet, the country's security agency. 
 
 The terror cells were getting orders from Hamas leaders in Turkey, while the operatives got their training outside Israel and were then smuggled back in to carry out the attacks, the Shin Bet said. 
 
 The arrests were made in September after explosive devices were detonated on August 31 in the West Bank, leading to a full investigation. 
 
 Among the targets selected were the Teddy football stadium and a light rail station in Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said. There were also plans to carry out attacks and abductions in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, it said. 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces "for foiling very dangerous terrorist actions that could have claimed many victims in our country." 
 
 While this operation has been made public, many other counter-terror actions against Hamas remain secret, he said, while visiting the Sde Boker kibbutz in southern Israel. 
 
 "We are operating day and night in order to maintain the security of Israel's citizens; the people who do this are deserving of all praise and support," he said. 
 
 Israel demolishes home as killers' families pay price for terror attacks
– Car bombings, kidnappings, and attacks on railway stations and Jerusalem's Teddy soccer stadium were just some of the items on Hamas' checklist, according to Israeli officials who today say they foiled a major West Bank terror plot by the group, the AP reports. The Shin Bet security service confirms it arrested in September more than 30 militants who reportedly were recruited and trained in Jordan, Turkey, Syria, and the Gaza Strip to carry out their missions, the Jerusalem Post reports. Their orders came directly from Hamas leaders who had set up shop in Turkey, and a stash of weapons and explosives was found as well, CNN reports. Other intended plans: sneaking into Israeli communities, targeting Israeli traffic and military hubs, and establishing Jordanian terror cells, the Post notes. The operation apparently started to fall apart after a failed roadside attack at the end of August, the Times of Israel reports: Info gathered after that incident offered "a wealth of information about the infrastructure." "This is one operation that has been published, but there are many more that remain secret," PM Benjamin Netanyahu says, per the AP. "These foiling activities are against terrorists and against Hamas, which challenges the existence of a Jewish nation-state and the existence of Jews in general." Hamas, meanwhile, has offered no comment so far. (A reported member of Hamas drove right into an Israeli crowd in October and killed a baby.)