JERUSALEM (BNO NEWS) -- Israeli security forces arrested nearly two dozen Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members allegedly running terrorist cells near Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested close to two dozen members who were also allegedly planning to kidnap soldiers and perpetrate other terror attacks against Israel. The Shin Bet said some of the operatives were Arabs from east Jerusalem with Israeli identity cards, which enabled them to travel freely throughout the country.

The Shin Bet added that over 20 suspects have been arrested in recent weeks, including some who have previously served time in Israeli prisons. One of the alleged leaders of the group was Nasser Abu-Khadir, a 50-year-old resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.

Khadir, who was released from prison in 1988, told interrogators that he was responsible for establishing the terrorist infrastructure in Jerusalem and Ramallah and was in touch with PFLP leadership in Damascus, which was supposed to provide financial and logistical assistance for Israel-based operatives.

Another senior operative was Walid Habas, 31, from Kfar Akab in northern Jerusalem. Habas was released from an Israeli prison in 2007 after serving a four-year sentence for his involvement in the attempted lynching of an IDF soldier near Ramallah in 1998. A cell run by Habas was allegedly planning to kidnap an IDF soldier, a number of shooting attacks at soldiers and settlers in the Ramallah area and a bomb attack in Jerusalem.

Other cell members were responsible for locating apartments that could be used as base of operations for the cell, and for obtaining false Israeli identity cards.

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