The Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem was to be the target of choice for an Israeli-Arab couple who planned to blow themselves up following their wedding. Israeli security forces thwarted their plans.
It was released for publication on Wednesday that the GSS recently arrested an Arab resident of eastern Jerusalem on suspicion of planning to carry out a suicide bombing together with his 16-year-old fiancי. The attack was scheduled for shortly after their wedding.
Ahmed Jazawi, an Israeli-Arab resident of the mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Abu-Tor, was recruited by Hamas handlers from Hevron – the same terror gang that carried out the double suicide-bombing in Be’er Sheva this past August, murdering 16 people.
Jazawi, 22, had already convinced his young fiancי, to carry out the attack together with him, and was in the midst of gathering intelligence with the goal of bombing the Sbarro pizzeria when he was arrested. Sbarro became famous in the summer of 2002 when, in a different downtown Jerusalem location, it suffered a suicide terrorist blast felling 15 Jews, including parents and three of their eight children.
The investigation revealed that Jazawi had friendly relations with Moutzab Hashlamoun, a Hamas handler from Hevron. They studied together at Abu-Dis University. Half a year ago, Jazawi told Hashlamoun he wanted to carry out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. The Hamas handler agreed and began to direct Jazawi on how to make his way to a target with his bomb, and how to maximize the number of murdered.
Jazawi enjoys the benefits of Israeli citizenship, including an Israeli ID card. Equipped with that card, he began surveying downtown Jerusalem’s streets for targets. He visited Jaffa Road and chose the newly relocated Sbarro pizzeria as his favored target. Hashlamoun then had Jazawi obtain chemicals and transfer them to Hamas bomb-makers in Hevron to construct bomb-belts.
Jazawi then decided that a double suicide bombing would be more effective, and approached his new fiancי, also from Abu Tor, on the matter – and she agreed. In the end, however, they decided to postpone the attack until after the wedding. Their plans were nipped in the bud on December 15, when Jazawi was arrested and handed over to the GSS for investigation.
