Israel Security Agency (ISA, Shin Bet) and police forces thwarted in August a terror attack against an IDF base that was being planned by three Arab youths from the northern Yafia Council affiliated with the “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorist organization.
The three suspects have been named as: Mohammad Ihab Sharif, 22; former security prisoner Mohammad Hamad Mohammad Jazala, 23; and Ahmad Omar Mohammad Mahajana, 19.
Other individuals detained in the operation include: Ahmad Ali Halil Ahmad, a 26-year-old resident of Nazareth who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Yafim Weinstein in 2009 and Ali Halil Salim Ahmad, Ahmad’s 55-year-old father.
Both are accused of providing the Yafia youths with the necessary weapons to commit a series of attacks across the Jewish state.
Upon interrogation, the suspects admitted to having planned the attack for over a year. The three said that they gathered weapons, learned how to use them and gathered intelligence about the IDF base.
The attack would have involved gunfire and firebombs that would be thrown at soldiers coming and going to a base in the Galilee.
According to the indictment, Sharif and Mahajana have been in contact with two friends from Yafia – Mohammad Kilani and Mohammad Kana’aneh who traveled to Syria in November 2014 to fight among the ranks of Islamic State.
During interrogation, the two suspects admitted that ISIS jihadists had been prompting them to commit terror attacks within Israel.
The cell is also suspected of having planned firebombing attacks on police precincts and vehicles in Migdal Emek and Nazareth as well as local businesses selling alcohol in Nazareth, as drinking is prohibited by Islam.
The suspects were indicted at the Nazareth District Court on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorist attacks, illegal weapons possession, membership in an illegal terror organization and maintaining contact with foreign terror agents.
All of the suspects will be held in custody until the investigation against them is complete, ISA officials said.
“Exposing the terror cell’s plans in advance and preventing murderous attacks by its members, points to the growing threat of the exodus of the members to jihad fighting areas throughout the world,” the security agency said in a statement.
