Yerushalayim Arabs Indicted for Planning IS-Inspired Terror Attack

Indictments were handed down Monday against two Arab residents of Yerushalayim for planning a terror attack in Israel “in the name of IS.” The two had planned to set off an explosive device next to Israeli security officers.

The two, Musab Alian, 23, and Samir Abed Rabo, 38, are residents of the Tsur Baher neighborhood. In October 2015, the two purchased cell phones that were to be used to set off an explosive device remotely, the indictment said. They also purchased a coffee grinder in order to create powders of various elements that, when combined, could be used to manufacture a bomb.  Prosecutors have asked that they be detained until proceedings against them are completed.

Earlier this month, prosecutors indicted two Israeli Arabs arrested for planning terror attacks on behalf of IS. Baha Al-din, 20, and Ahmad Ahmad, 22, were arrested in January and February respectively on charges of planning terror attacks, conspiracy, and other crimes.

Police and Shin Bet officials who detained Al-din discovered videos with specific instructions on how to carry out terror attacks on his cellular device. At one point, Al-din, a resident of Nazareth who was studying at a university in Jenin, recruited Ahmad to plan a suicide terror attack in Yerushalayim. Each contributed NIS 1,500 to purchase materials to carry out the attack. The two confessed to the planning of the attack under questioning, and said they were firm believers in Salafist Islam, which bids its followers to uproot and destroy “infidels” by any means possible.

In December, security officials announced that they had arrested two Israeli Arabs – Muhammad Omar Badar Hassan, 20, and Ahmed Talal Ahmed Sa’adiya, 23, cousins and residents of Arab villages in the Nazareth area – who had planned to enter Syria and join Islamic State terrorists, but changed their mind after hearing horror stories about life in IS-controlled areas.