Israeli security officials have announced the arrest of an alleged Jewish extremist cell said to be operating in the occupied West Bank, which had tried unsuccessfully on at least one occasion to burn a Palestinian house with the family inside.

The six-strong cell – according to the Israeli domestic security agency the Shin Bet – included a 19-year-old Israel Defence Forces soldier as well as two teenagers.

During interrogation several members confessed they had been “inspired” by the arson murders of three members of the Dawabshe family – including an 18-month-old toddler – in the village of Duma in July 2015 allegedly by Jewish extremists.

According to a statement issued by the Shin Bet, the new group was active in the northern West Bank before and after the Duma murders and was behind a number of attacks including an arson attack on an inhabited Palestinian home.

“Re-enactments and the confessions of the suspects revealed a violent and extremist network which systematically attacked Palestinians and their property even while they were fully aware of the possibility of killing someone after the arson in Duma, and were even inspired by it,” the Shin Bet said.

“The intelligence we gathered around these attacks pointed to the existence of a Jewish terror organisation in [the Israeli settlement of] Nahliel.



“During the latter half of 2015, there were a number of terror attacks and violent incidents against Palestinians. Two notable attacks were against buildings that had Palestinians inside.”

The statement added that members of the new cell had links with the so-called “Revolt” – a loosely affiliated Messianic movement of settler teenagers in conflict with both Palestinians and the state of Israel.

The discovery of the latest alleged active group of Jewish extremists follows renewed efforts to target the resurgent phenomenon of Jewish extremist violence in the West Bank following Duma.

The Shin Bet added that those arrested had “confessed to carrying out widespread terror activities, which included attempts to harm inhabited Palestinian homes, attacking minorities, arson, and vandalising Palestinian vehicles”, and that the suspects had allegedly also hurled rocks from a passing vehicle at Palestinian cars.

The six – Pinchas Sandorfi, 22, Itamar Ben Aharon, 20, Michael Kaplan, 20, and two unnamed teenagers and an unnamed soldier – all live in the settlements of Nahliel and Kirya Arba on the West Bank.

According to reports in the Israeli media, at the centre of the alleged cell were three brothers from the Sandorfi family, sons of the rabbi of Nahliel, who identifies with the extreme right wing.

The seven attacks attributed to the group included one on a farmer with sticks and teargas, the night-time firebombing of a Palestinian home in the village of Mazra Kabaliya while family members were asleep and the burning of Palestinian cars.

Serious charges are expected to be filed against the six in the coming days. Honenu, a rightwing legal advocacy group representing the suspects, alleged their access to lawyers was limited to help pressure those arrested into admitting to the crimes.