Mamilla Terror Plotters Sentenced

Two Palestinians who had conspired to stage a terror attack against the Mamilla mall in Yerushalayim in 2013 were sentenced to eight and ten-year prison terms on Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The two men, residents of eastern Yerushalayim, employed as maintenance workers at the mall, were planning to conceal a bomb in a closet of the commercial center and detonate it before the Yamim Nora’im when the area would be crowded with shoppers.

Ahmad Rishek was given 10 years in prison and Ismail Abu Mfalfal eight years, after conviction on charges of conspiracy to aid an enemy during wartime and attempted manufacturing of a weapon.

They were not charged with attempted murder, because they were caught early in the planning stages.

Security forces found an explosives lab and instruction manuals on how to make bombs in the home of a Hamas operative who was instructing Rishek and Mfalfal, the Shin Bet stated. He and others connected to the crime were also arrested.

“During questioning, members of the terrorist cell mentioned other initial plans to carry out additional attacks, including harming IDF soldiers by booby-trapping homes in Ramallah, manufacturing and firing rockets at Israeli communities near Ramallah, and attempting to get hold of handguns to fire on soldiers at the Hizma roadblock, northeast of Yerushalayim,” the Shin Bet said.

Meanwhile, police chief Yohanan Danino confirmed suspicions that the incident in which a Palestinian driver rammed his car into a bus stop and killed Shalom Yohai Sherki, Hy”d, 26, and badly injured, ybl”c, Shira Klein, 20, was in fact a terrorist attack and not an accident.

The driver, Khaled Kutina, a 37-year-old Palestinian, remains in police custody.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the April 20th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.