Jewish Settlers Nabbed in Bomb Plot
Four Jewish settlers have been arrested on suspicion they planned to set off a large bomb near an Arab hospital and a school in Jerusalem, police said Friday.

The first two men were arrested April 28 after police found in their vehicle a deadly cocktail of flammable materials, gas canisters and explosive charges hooked up to timers.

A news blackout was imposed as the investigation continued. The interrogation led to the arrests of two more men, police said. The gag order was partially lifted Friday.

Three of those in custody are from the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin, home to about 110 religious families, including some American immigrants.

The fourth suspect is from the Maon settlement, where a tense standoff between settlers and soldiers in 1999 ended with soldiers removing more than 100 settlers who were holed up in the hilltop farm, known as Havat Maon, to resist a government decision to dismantle the outpost.

Police identified the two suspects arrested April 28 as Yarden Morag, 25, and Shlomo Dvir, 27, both of Bat Ayin. Morag and Dvir were stopped by a routine early morning police patrol as they unhitched a trailer from their car, parked between a hospital and a local girls' school, Israel TV's Channel Two reported.

When the two refused to explain their presence in a predominantly Arab neighborhood, police searched their vehicle, discovering ingredients for a massive homemade bomb in the trailer. The trailer contained two fuel containers, two large gas canisters and two explosive charges, Channel 2 reported.

The device was set to explode at 7:30 a.m. -- as students would have arrived at school.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Militants.html