Police Arrest Five in Connection With Chadera Terror Attack

Police Arrest Five in Connection With Chadera Terror Attack

Police arrested five men overnight Sunday, suspected of assisting the perpetrators of the deadly terror attack in Chadera on Sunday, the force said on Monday.

Three of the suspects were residents of the Arab city of Umm el-Fahm, which was also home to the two terrorists, and one was a brother of one of the men.

Police said they were investigating whether any of the suspects were members of the same IS-inspired terror cell.

The two men identified as the terrorists were cousins, Ibrahim and Ayman Agrabia. One of them was convicted of attempting to join the Islamic State in 2016.

Security forces conducted searches in Umm el-Fahm overnight, and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Public Security Minister Omer Barlev were also on the scene.

Relatives of the terrorists, who were shot dead on Sunday by forces who were in the vicinity, said they had no prior indication that such an attack was being planned.

Late on Sunday, family members and friends arrived to pay their condolences to the families of the terrorists. Some condemned the attack while others said they were pleased with “the message sent to this racist government, for its treatment of the Bedouins in the Negev, the demolition of houses in the Arab sector and the events in East Yerushalayim’s neighborhood of Sheikh Jarah.”

Initial investigations into the deadly attack showed the two terrorists arrived at the scene and fired shots at Border Police officers at a bus stop. They killed Yazen Falah and Shirel Abukarat and seriously wounded another woman. They continued their indiscriminate shooting, including towards a bike rider who happened on the scene.

Undercover Border Police forces who were in a nearby restaurant heard the gunfire and responded quickly, killing the terrorists. Two of them were slightly injured in the exchange of fire. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

The terrorists wore IS-inspired clothes and other Islamist characteristics including white skullcaps and long beards and carried a dagger attached to their belts. One of them had a sign of a skull on the back of his clothes, likely meant to cause fear.

Sunday’s attack was the second carried out by Israeli citizens who were inspired by IS. Last Tuesday, a Bedouin resident of the Negev stabbed four people to death in a killing spree in Be’er Sheva.