Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man in Jaffa on Thursday who was armed with a firearm and pipe bombs packed with nails, thwarting the “mass casualty attack” he admitted to seeking to perpetrate.
Two officers from Yasam, a special patrol unit of the Israel Police, approached the man — identified as a 19-year-old resident of the West Bank city of Nablus — near Jaffa’s clock tower after their suspicions were raised by his behavior, they said in an interview following the incident. After searching his “heavy” bag, they discovered a Carlo submachine gun and two pipe bombs filled with nails, prompting an arrest.
The man, who entered Israel illegally, admitted in an initial investigation “that he was on the way to carry out an attack, and was on the way to find a crowded area in order to commit a shooting and massacre,” said Israeli Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai. It is believed the suspect sought to carry out his attack in Tel Aviv.
He is suspected of receiving help from a second individual who was detained later in the evening in Tapuach Junction in the West Bank, Army Radio reported.
