The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Jerusalem District Police revealed a Jerusalem-based Hamas terror cell planning to assassinate Israel public figures on Tuesday. Among them was MK Itamar Ben Gvir. Ben Gvir is among the lone parliamentarians who have openly called for the construction of the third Temple.
Last month, Ben-Gvir entered the Temple Mount on Israel’s 74th Independence Day. During his visit, Ben-Gvir said: “The time has come to build a Jewish synagogue on the Temple Mount.”
Ben-Gvir.(Otzma Yehuditfulfillment) said in an exclusive interview with Israel365 News last year that he is in favor of building the Third Temple as commanded in the book of Exodus:
And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)
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Additionally, he is in favor of Israel retaking all of Judea and Samaria and applying sovereignty on all of the land that was conquered in 1967 (not just Area C), which he sees as a lands of prophecy from the Book of Joshua:
Every spot on which your foot treads I give to you, as I promised Moshe. (Joshua 1:3)
After visiting the Temple Mount in March, Ben-Gvir was called a “pyromaniac” by the Joint (Arab) List Knesset party.
The Shin Bet said that the terrorists also bought a drone that they planned to arm for an attack on the Jerusalem light rail system.
Rashid Rashak, a prominent Hamas terrorist in the Old City of Jerusalem, was named a suspect in the planned shooting or suicide bombing attacks in Jerusalem. Mantzur Tzafadi, another Hamas operative from the Abu Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem, was also named.
“The Shin Bet investigation revealed that the cell members planned to hide out in Hebron or Jenin after carrying out the attacks,” said the Shin Bet.
Additionally, Rashak “set up a system of operatives in Jerusalem aimed at conducting disturbances in neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount during the last Ramadan period, to undermine stability on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Operatives received many fireworks, flags, and Hamas ribbons in the east of the city and the Temple Mount for use during disturbances during the Ramadan month,” it added.
Five of the suspects were charged with serious security offenses on Tuesday.
In 2014, Temple Mount activists Rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot four times by a terrorist in Jerusalem for promoting Jewish pilgrimmage to the holy site.
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