The ISA (Israel Security Agency/Shin Bet) announced on Wednesday, the arrest of terrorist Zakariya Zubeidi, a former commander of the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Tareq Barghouti. The Shin Bet said the two were arrested “for their involvement in serious and up-to-date terrorist activity,” and they remain in Shin Bet custody, as they will be interrogated. ISA agents working with IDF soldiers apprehended the two, along with others as detailed below.

The two were arrested in the Ramallah area. Barghouti, a lawyer from East Jerusalem, holds a blue identity card and lives in Ramallah.

Zubeidi, who previously served as commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin. In 2007 he announced that Israel would stop persecuting him. He a number of other wanted individuals were given clemency by Israel provided he returned his weapon to the Palestinian Authority and halted terrorist activities.

Zubeidi, began working for the PA security apparatus. He was then arrested a year later, this time accused of the murder of Israeli Arab film producer Mer-Khamis. While he denied the allegations against him, he was tortured by the PA and kept under inhumane conditions in a Yericho prison facility.

In 2013 he was arrested by the PA, claiming the move was to place him in protective custody as Israel announced the cancellation of the clemency agreement with him. He spent several years in prison, only to be released in another amnesty deal in 2017.

B’chasdei Hashem, other arrests were made on Wednesday, including the six members of a Shechem-based terror cell that received its orders from Gaza and Lebanon. According to the report, the cell was planning bombing attacks.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)