Israeli security forces on Wednesday arrested Zakaria Zubeidi, a former Palestinian terrorist leader long sought by Israeli law enforcement, on suspicion that he was engaged in “serious and current terrorist activities,” the Shin Bet said.

In addition to Zubeidi, Israeli forces also arrested on similar charges the attorney Tarek Barghout, who often represents terror suspects.

“This morning, in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security service, Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police, Zakaria Zubeidi and Tarek Barghout were arrested in connection with their involvement in serious and current terrorist activities,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

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The security service refused to elaborate on the nature of the suspicions against Zubeidi and Barghout.

The two men were arrested in the Ramallah area of the central West Bank, the Shin Bet said.

According to Palestinian media, Israeli forces also confiscated Barghout’s car in Ramallah.

מקורות פלסטיניים מדווחים כי כוחות צה"ל נכנסו לרמאללה תחתית. על פי הדיווחים, הכוחות ביצעו חיפוש במקום בו שהה טארק ברגות שנעצר והחרימו את מכוניתו @nurityohanan pic.twitter.com/AsEzEBdKoP — כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 27, 2019

During the Second Intifada, Zubeidi served as the commander of the Jenin region of Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. He was also suspected of being one of the chief architects of several terror attacks during the early 2000s.

Zubeidi, who also helped found Jenin’s Freedom Theatre in 2006, evaded capture by Israeli forces for years, before the Israeli government offered him and several other al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades members amnesty in 2007.

While he was wanted by Israel for his terrorist activities, Zubeidi began a relationship with an Israeli woman, Tali Fahima, in 2004. Fahima moved into Zubeidi’s Jenin home in order to act as a human shield and prevent Israel from conducting an airstrike to kill him. She was later arrested and convicted of assisting an enemy in wartime.

In December 2011, the Israeli government rescinded Zubeidi’s amnesty without public explanation. Zubeidi has been on Jerusalem’s wanted list ever since.

Initially, Zubeidi evaded capture by Israeli forces by remaining in Palestinian Authority custody in Ramallah. He was released by the PA and permitted to return to Jenin in 2017.</s>Israeli security forces arrested a prominent former Palestinian militant and a lawyer on Wednesday in a West Bank raid over "terror" allegations, officials said.

"Zakaria Zubeidi and Tareq Barghout were arrested over their involvement in current severe terror activity," the Shin Bet domestic security service said in a statement, refusing to provide further details.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said Zubeidi, the former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades militant group, was arrested in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The arrests come with Israeli security forces concerned over increased tensions in the West Bank after recent scuffles at a Jerusalem holy site and Israel's decision to withhold tens of millions of dollars in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority.

Israel is withholding $138 million in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to the families of prisoners, or prisoners themselves, jailed for attacks on Israelis.

Israel is also gearing up to hold elections on April 9.

Zubeidi had faced charges in the past from the Palestinian Authority for taking part in a shooting attack on the residence of Jenin governor Qaddura Musa in 2002.

Musa died after suffering a heart attack during the incident, and Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people, including Zubeidi, shortly afterwards.

In 2011, the Freedom Theatre's well-known Israeli-Palestinian director Juliano Mer-Khamis was gunned down in Jenin's refugee camp, in an attack that remains unsolved.
Shin Bet arrest lawyer Tarek Barghout, an attorney who has represented "terror" suspects, and a Palestinian man named Zakaria Zubeidi for what it calls "their involvement in serious and current terrorist activities."