The Shin Bet security agency announced Sunday that it foiled dozens of planned terror attacks in the West Bank directed by Hamas operatives in Turkey in the past year.

In a statement, the Shin Bet named several Turkey-based operatives in Hamas’s so-called West Bank Headquarters, a unit in the terror group responsible for advancing attacks against Israel from or within the West Bank.

“Over the years, and with increased intensity over the past year, operatives in the West Bank Headquarters have been directing and advancing extensive military activity into Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and Israel from Turkish soil, including recruiting operatives to carry out attacks and transferring weapons and funds into the area to advance military activity,” the agency said.

According to the Shin Bet, Istanbul-based senior Hamas official Zaher Jabarin is the head of Hamas’s West Bank activity, and Ayman Abu Khalil heads the military wing in the territory.

The Shin Bet named several more operatives who it said reside in Turkey and operate under Hamas’s West Bank Headquarters.

They include Ayman Sharawna, who worked to recruit operatives; Muhammad Mallah, who spends part of his time in Qatar, and worked to transfer funds for terror activity; Majed Jaaba, who assisted in providing the weapon used in a........

© The Times of Israel