Jerusalem district police and the Shin Bet security service detained four settlers on suspicion of planning mass terror attacks against Palestinian residents of A-Tur and in East Jerusalem. Two of those held were arrested some two weeks ago as they were apparently planting a bomb near a hospital in East Jerusalem. Officers from a nearby police station, who were patrolling A-Tur when they spotted a suspicious vehicle with two passengers, both residents of the Bat Ein settlement.

The officers followed the suspect vehicle and called for reinforcements. When they approached the Palestinian Al-Mukasad hospital, the suspects unhooked a trailer from the rear of the vehicle, and placed it at the side of the road, next to the hospital and a nearby all-girl high school, Haaretz reported. The officers approached the two suspects and asked them to explain their actions, but the two refused to answer. The officers took the two suspects into custody.

A search of the vehicle discovered unlicensed weapons. An army sapper was called to the scene and found a powerful explosive device, with a time-delayed detonator, inside the trailer. The device was programmed to explode the following morning. Bomb squad officers neutralized the device. Following an extensive interrogation of the two settlers, two additional settlers were arrested. All four suspects are currently under arrest, the newspaper added.

PHOTO CAPTION

This is a large homemade bomb found in the trailer of two Jewish settlers in Jerusalem April 28, 2002. Four Jewish settlers have been arrested on suspicion they planned to set off the large bomb at an Arab hospital in Jerusalem, police said Friday. (AP Photo/ZOOM 77)