Egypt thwarts plan to attack Israelis at revered rabbi's grave

Haaretz:

By Avi Issacharoff

Egyptian security forces arrested 23 Egyptians suspected of belonging to a radical Muslim terror group that was planning to attack Jewish worshipers during a pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, who is buried in the Egyptian city of Damanhur, the security forces announced over the weekend.

The suspects, some of whom were arrested several weeks ago, are also accused of planning to blow up American ships in the Suez Canal and carry out terror attacks in Egypt. They are also accused of planning to cripple major banks in Cairo and Alexandria. Advertisement


Various reports indicate that the suspects were caught with a large weapons cache, including warheads for Qassam rockets manufactured by Hamas. Egyptian security forces say they set up training camps where they practiced using explosives.

Egyptian prosecutors have begun investigating the suspects.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reports that the alleged terror cell is based on the ideology of Sayyid Qutb, considered the spiritual father of the radical Islamic movements that fought secular rule.

The extensive weapons cache the cell reportedly has violates the commitment that Egypt's major Islamic groups made in the 1990s to disarm and refrain from attacking civilian targets.

Unlike in similar past instances, all the members of the cell are Egyptian citizens, according to the paper, and are not part of a foreign movement like Lebanon's Hezbollah, which planned multiple terror attacks from an operations base in Egypt.

In April, news spread that Egyptian authorities had arrested 49 suspects from several Arab countries who were suspected of belonging to a terror network operated by Hezbollah. They planned to attack sites including those frequented by Israeli tourists.

Egypt suspects that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah activated the cell during a televised speech. The suspects arrested included Palestinians who came to Egypt from Gaza, as well as people from Sudan, Syria and Lebanon. The suspects were trained abroad to learn how to use explosives and entered Egypt with forged documents. They were ordered to rent property from which they could observe the Suez Canal and tourist sites in Sinai, including areas frequented by Israelis. One of the main suspects was Sami Shihab from Lebanon.

Three months later, it was reported that a Gaza Strip resident was leading a cell of radical Islamic operatives similar to Al-Qaida. According to reports from Egypt, the cell was responsible for the death of a French tourist killed in an attack on the Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo and was planning additional terror attacks. The cell members had reportedly undergone training in the Gaza Strip.