PA arrests Fatah cell targeting its intelligence chief

Palestinian Authority (PA) security services have arrested a group of Fatah members planning to target the chief of the PA’s General Intelligence Service Majed Faraj and his family, Arab48 reported yesterday.

According to the news website, Israeli and Palestinian sources revealed information about the cell to the Israeli media.

The Israeli news website Walla! reported the sources saying that some of the suspects had spent time in Israeli prisons and are linked to the Fatah leader and former Intelligence Chief Tawfiq Al-Tirawi.

Al-Tirawi has been an outspoken critic of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and has disputes with a number of senior Palestinian figures.

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The Israeli website reported that the PA’s Preventive Security Services found weapons and explosive devices in the possession of the suspects.

The  man heading the cell, the sources said, confessed to planning to target Faraj’s family by planting a bomb in their car, stating that they had already tracked family members to learn their movements.

Al-Tirawi is wanted by occupation authorities due to his claimed relations to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, which was dissolved by Abbas.