Israeli official: Jewish terrorists still at large

A senior Israeli internal security service official has said that there are still 'Jewish terrorists' at large in Israel, who may be planning future attacks.

The comments by the Shin Bet follow the announcement on Sunday that settler Yaakov Tytell was arrested last month for allegedly killing two Palestinians and carrying out a string of bomb attacks.

"The Jewish settler is an extremist, who firmly believes in his ideology and who acted carefully, decisively and with sophistication," Haaretz quoted the Shin Bet official as saying on Monday.

"Tytell is not mentally unstable," the official added.

"You don't need an underground with 100 people in order to cause grave damage," the Shin Bet official said.

The remarks come as Palestinian security guards said that they foiled an attack by an armed Jewish extremist on Al-Aqsa Mosque worshipers on Sunday.

Hatim Abdulqader, who is in charge of the Jerusalem Al-Quds portfolio in the Fatah movement told Arab News that the Palestinian guards succeeded in arresting the Jewish gunman as he went up the stairs of a building adjacent to the mosque on Sunday.

The man, who had strapped a machine gun on his back, is believed to have been trying to massacre worshipers in the mosque compound, the report said.

The man was handed over to the Israeli police, who later claimed that he was mad, a claim that has been denied by the Palestinian officials.