Tel Aviv morning commuters on Tuesday were met with a most unpleasant and unwanted surprise. As a result of a terror alert in the city, roadblocks were established resulting in major traffic jams, leaving many motorists stranded in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Three PA (Palestinian Authority) residents were eventually arrested due to the massive police sweep on areas of the city, inspections of every vehicle and other measures, leading to their apprehension.

The lockdown began at 6:00am, with Yassam commando forces inspecting one vehicle at a time. Acting on intelligence information from the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet), hundreds of elite units, working with regular police, border police and specialized forces took part in the operation. They had information indicating the wanted suspect was involved in planning a major terror attack in Tel Aviv.

At about 1:00pm, the suspect was located, along with two PA residents illegally inside Green Line Israel, in the area of Wolfson Street in the southern portion of the city. They were all taken into custody and police learned where they remained the night before. That area was closed off and a police force moved in, searching for explosives, weapons or an associate. They search did not yield anything and the suspects, all three, were turned over to the ISA for interrogation. When the three were arrested, they were also unarmed and were not carrying any explosive device.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)