Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency claimed on Sunday that it has arrested a group of Palestinians accused of planning to assassinate Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli media have reported. The accused are said to be affiliated to Islamic Jihad, said Shin Bet. No details of the date and time of the proposed assassination were provided by the agency.

According to Quds Press, reports on Israeli television claimed that the group also planned to carry out attacks against Israel’s illegal settlements and military targets near Bethlehem. The leader of the group, it claimed, is Awad Mahmoud Awad Asakra, 25, from the occupied West Bank city.

Shin Bet claims that the group planned to plant improvised explosive devices along the route taken by Lieberman when he leaves the illegal settlement of Nikodim, which is built near occupied Bethlehem.

Read: Lieberman calls for assassination of Hamas leaders in Gaza