The 39-year-old officer Yehoshua Sofer was killed and two others were injured in mid June as Palestinian fighters opened fire at a police car near the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Fawwar, south Hebron.
The officers were making their way to Hebron from the southern city of Beersheba A Palestinian group called “Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Shin Bet said that the joint forces detained several Hamas members in the village of Dair Samit on June 22, six days after Sofer was killed. The detainees told investigators that they were members of a military cell formed last year with the intention of carrying out attacks in the southern Hebron Hills.
It added that four members of the group took part in the attack that killed Sofer. One allegedly served as a lookout while three others sat in a car at the side of the road to open fire on the passing police vehicle.
The Palestinian Authority, controlled by the Fatah movement, has launched its own crackdown against Hamas, driving the group underground in the West Bank.
Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and has cracked down on Fatah members there. On Monday, Gaza’s Hamas rulers banned top Fatah officials from leaving the territory for a meeting in the West Bank, according to Amal Hamad, a Fatah member from Gaza.
Also Monday, Israeli forces demolished a cluster of tents and shacks belonging to Palestinians in the northern West Bank, according to the Israeli military. Israeli house demolitions have angered Palestinians, who say they are forced to build without permits because of discriminatory planning rules, and have drawn criticism from the international community.
One of the Palestinians, Ziad Adnan Saeh, said Israeli soldiers arrived early Monday and ordered him and others away before knocking the structures down. “They didn’t leave anything of our belongings. They were threatening to shoot us if we come close, so all of us left and now look what happened,” he said.
The Israeli military’s Civil Administration said the military knocked down nine temporary agricultural structures because they were put up without permits in an army firing zone, endangering the Palestinians working there. The Palestinians were given three weeks to contest the demolition orders in court but did not do so, the Civil Administration said in a statement.
— With input from agencies
