ISRAEL said late Wednesday its security forces had arrested five Hamas militants from East Jerusalem suspected of carrying out a bombing at nearby Hebrew University last month that killed nine people, including five Americans.

　Officials from Israel’s Shin Bet security service said five members of a Hamas cell were caught Saturday night on their way to mount a new bombing in central Israel.

　The cell is suspected of carrying out attacks which killed 35 people in some of the deadliest bombings since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

　Israeli security officials said they would pass on their findings to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which launched its own probe of the July 31 bombing in a crowded cafeteria at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

　Four of those arrested are Palestinian residents of Arab East Jerusalem bearing Israeli identity papers which allow them free movement and many rights received by full citizens in the Jewish state. The cell is believed to have received its orders from Hamas members in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (SD-Agencies)