IDF kills mastermind of Jerusalem Yeshiva terror attack

Muhammad Shahade, an Islamic Jihad operative who Palestinian sources say was behind the terror attack in Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem last week, has been killed by IDF forces in Bethlehem Wednesday afternoon, local witnesses reported. see more.

While attempting to arrest the men, who made up the Islamic Jihad's leadership in the city, the troops came under fire near the Bethlehem Mukata (government building), and killed all four in a gun battle.

Palestinian claims that the fugitives were responsible for planning last week's attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, in which gunman Ala Abu Dhaim killed eight students, were flatly denied by Israeli security officials, who added that the troops had not planned to kill the fugitives. see more.

Palestinian security officials said one of the dead was the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Bethlehem area, Mohammed Shehadeh, and two others were also members of Islamic Jihad. A fourth man belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.