The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has arrested 14 terrorists, some from the Islamic Jihad organization, on suspicion that they were involved in the bombing of a bus in Bat Yam two weeks ago. A policeman was lightly hurt in the incident.

A gag order on the arrests was removed Thursday.

Four of those arrested are Islamic residents of Bethlehem. They were caught after ‘strenuous intelligence operations,’ with the assistance of the Israel Police and the IDF. The others are Bedouin Arabs.

The main suspect in carrying out the attack is Sami Harimi, 20. Harimi got a Bedouin citizen of Israel who smuggles illegals into Israel from Palestinian Authority territories, to drive him to Yafo (Jaffa). After he prayed at a mosque, he got on Dan bus number 240, placed the explosive charge in the middle of the bus, got off at a station and a few minutes later, called the cell phone that was connected to the charge and set it off.

Harimi, who was arrested a few days after the attack, has confessed to the attack and said that the terror cell intended to carry out a larger terror attack in Tel Aviv a few days after the first. Another suspect who is under arrest, Hamdi Taamri, 21, led investigators to a stash of explosives weighing about 20 kilograms, that were hidden near his home.

According to reports, passengers noticed a suspicious object on the bus and reported it to the driver, who quickly removed all passengers from the bus. The bomb squad officer got on the bus to disarm the device, but it exploded as he approached it. Paramedics and emergency personnel provided first aid to the lightly injured officer.