Israel rounds up Salafi extremists after Jerusalem truck attack
DEBKAfile Exclusive: The Shin Bet and other Israeli security forces Monday rounded up 20 Salafi Islamic extremists in the Palestinian towns of Nablus and Bethlehem in the wake of the Palestinian truck attack in Jerusalem Sunday that killed four young Israeli soldiers, and injured 13. Our sources reveal that the operation was coordinated with the Palestinian Authority’s security and intelligence services. The crackdown was ordered after it turned out that the truck terrorist, Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, from the Jerusalem district of Jabal Muqabar, had some months ago adopted radical Islamist practices without attracting the notice of Israel’s anti-terror intelligence branch. They were now combing through the extremist Salafi circles in Judea and Samaria to root out his contacts. Quntar himself was shot dead in the middle of the truck attack.