The Shin Bet internal security service has arrested 10 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine accused of planning to kidnap Israelis, the agency said on Tuesday.

The arrests were made several months earlier but a media blackout was imposed.

"Shin Bet, with the help of the army and the Israeli police, arrested an armed cell of the PLFP that was preparing to kidnap Israelis who could serve as bargaining chips in exchange for the release of PFLP chief Ahmed Saadat, who is held in Israel," the agency said in a statement.

The two key suspects, residents of the West Bank city of the Ramallah, allegedly plotted to kidnap an Israeli soldier to be traded for Saadat, who was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison in 2008 over his involvement in multiple attacks.

The two are being charged before a military tribunal with plotting to kidnap a soldier. The other eight face charges of "terror activities against soldiers" and disturbing public order.