The Shin Bet and police are questioning four Jewish settlers suspected of planning to detonate a large bomb outside an elementary school for Arab girls in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood two weeks ago. Details of the attempted bombing were released on Friday, at the conclusion of a court-ordered publicity ban on the case. Police are investigating whether the four-man underground cell was also responsible for other recent terror attacks against Arabs.

Police arrested Shlomo Dvir, 26, and Yarden Morag, 25, both from the settlement of Bat Ayin southwest of Bethlehem, on April 29, when a routine patrol in the Arab neighborhood of A-Tur spotted the men there at about three in the morning. The two were driving a commercial vehicle, and were attempting to detach a trailer outside the Arab school and the nearby Mokassed Hospital. When police asked what they were doing in the Arab neighborhood at that time of night, the two men mumbled that they were changing a flat tire.

An investigation of the trailer revealed that it contained two unlicensed guns and a large bomb attached to two gas canisters. A timer on the bomb indicated that it was set to explode at 7:35 a.m., at a time when the hundreds of students at the school would have filled the courtyard for their morning assembly. A police sapper was called in to neutralize the explosives.

"Had the bomb gone off as planned, it would have caused casualties and damage," Jerusalem Police Chief Cmdr. Mickey Levy said. Police had not received any intelligence information about a planned terror attack in the A-Tur neighborhood.

The two suspects reportedly denied the charges, and due to the "special sensitivity" of the case, were not allowed to meet with their attorney. A full gag order was imposed on the investigation, as the police arrested two additional suspects in the case.

Bat Ayin resident Ofer Gamliel, 42, was arrested by police and is suspected of having initiated the bombing attack and having prepared the explosives. Gamliel served as a sapper in the Engineering Corps and has extensive knowledge and training in the preparation of explosives, Yediot Aharonot reported. Also arrested was Yosef Ben Baruch, 22, from Havat Maon, on suspicion of having helped prepare the bomb.

Police are investigating whether the four men were involved in the planting of bombs in the courtyard of a school for Arab boys in the Sur Bahir neighborhood of east Jerusalem on March 5. The bombs were discovered, but seven students and a teacher were lightly injured when they exploded. Sources involved in the investigation believe it is less likely that the four men were also involved in a recent series of road shootings, which resulted in the deaths of eight Palestinians, Ha'aretz reported.

On Thursday, a group calling itself "The Fighters of the Kingdom of Israel" claimed responsibility for the road shootings and the Sur Bahir bombing. Earlier, an unknown Jewish group calling itself "The Avengers of the Oppressed" claimed responsibility for the bombing attack.

Residents of Bat Ayin expressed astonishment over the allegations. Morag's mother said she was sure her son was innocent and that the charges were baseless. Community spokesman Moti Karpel said he had no faith in the Shin Bet security service. "The declaration of the Shin Bet must be taken in proportion, because in the past they have declared that they uncovered several Jewish terrorist cells, only to have this claim proven wrong," he said.

Bat Ayin, a 13-year-old settlement in the Gush Etzion area, has some 110 families, comprising a mix of Breslev followers, Habadniks, and secular Jews who returned to their religious roots. The community recently gained media exposure in Israel with its "No Arabs allowed" policy and its requirement that all male residents grow beards.

The Yesha Council of Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, issued a harsh condemnation of the alleged bombing attack on Arabs, saying it was not only against the law, but morally wrong.

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