Taibe Arabs Sentenced for Digging Terror Tunnel

A Lod court on Monday imposed a three-year sentence on Taibe residents Amir Jabara and Muhammad Nashaf, who attempted to dig a terror tunnel from Taibe to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Yehudah and Shomron. A third defendant in the case, Ibrahim Sheikh Yussef, was given a 28-month prison sentence.

The sentences were part of a plea deal with the three, whose intentions were to dig a tunnel that would allow Arab terrorists from the PA to enter Israel and carry out terror attacks. The three were sympathizers with Islamic State, and and had been in touch with the terror group, discussing details of the plan.

The tunnel-digging took place in October 2016, with the route planned from under the home of either Jabara or Nashaf to the PA-controlled village of Harabat Jabara, about three kilometers from Taibe on the PA side of the security fence.

The two began digging, but by December had progressed just four meters, at which time they stopped their work, on suspicion that the IDF had discovered what they were doing. After December they stayed away from the digging site, observing it from a distance to see if soldiers had discovered it.

In addition to digging the terror tunnel, the two, together with Yussef, are accused of attempting to carry out a terror attack at a Taibe stadium. The three tried to stop a musical event that they considered to be “blasphemous” to Islam. They set fire to the stadium, and caused some damage to it before the fire was put out.