The Shin Bet said that the five men, who were arrested in February, were allegedly involved in setting up a bomb which exploded in Jerusalem in the beginning of March, injuring a city maintenance worker. The arrests had previously been under an Israeli gag order.

It added that the cell’s members are being charged with involvement in a terrorist organization, contact with foreign agents, conspiring to assist an enemy in a war and an attempt to devise weapons. The charges were filed with the Jerusalem District Court. 

The five were identified as Monir Marwan Attoun, Jihad Attoun, Ahmed Nimer, Mahmoud Dwayyat and Mahmoud's brother Ahmed.

According to the Shin Bet, the group has allegedly been operating since the major Israeli offensive that took place in the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-2009. The group acquired weapons with the assistance of Hamas in an effort to sponsor terror activities, it said.

The Shin Bet added that the cell planned to attack a Jerusalem mall with a car bomb, to plant a bomb at a bus stop in Gilo settlement used by Jewish occupiers of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested around 160 Palestinians in the village of Awarta, to the southeast of Nablus, and Al-Dhaisheh refugee camp, to the southeast of Bethlehem.

Qais Awwad, the head of Awarta village’s council, said that Israeli forces arrested some 150 men and women in search for the attackers behind the killing of a Jewish family in the nearby Israeli settlement of Itamar earlier last March.

Awwad said the Israeli forces entered Awarta, only a few hundred meters from Itamar, shortly after midnight, imposed curfew and arrested the people. The detainees were taken from their homes for investigation in the Hewara military base.

He added: “They took samples for DNA tests and (the suspects) were fingerprinted before being interrogated. Some were released but more are being kept in Israeli custody.”

Last week, the Israeli army carried out a wide-scale operation in the village, imposing a curfew and arresting at least 60 villagers. As yet, no one has been charged in the murder of the Jewish family. Palestinian media outlets continued to cast doubt on the identity of the perpetrators, one hinting that it could have been foreign workers employed in the settlement, and one saying it could have been an “inside job.”

The Palestinian government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned Israel's “oppressive military operations” in the village.