Israel says it busted Hamas cell planning attacks

Israel’s Shin Bet security service says it has uncovered a Hamas network in the West Bank that was planning large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem.

The Shin Bet said Thursday it arrested more than 30 Hamas militants who planned to carry out attacks against Jerusalem’s light rail and its largest soccer stadium, among other targets.

The Hamas men were trained and recruited in Jordan and Turkey, it said.

While the Islamic militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is run by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The arrests come amid the worst wave of violence in Israel in a decade. Over the past month, 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, including a deadly assault last week on a Jerusalem synagogue that killed five people.