#MUSLIMS Planning #TERROR Attacks on #JEWISH HOLIDAY!

 

Indictments filed against all six members of the cell, which was planning major attacks, kidnappings

Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service and Jerusalem Police uncovered a terrorist cell run by the Islamic State group in East Jerusalem that planned to carry out attacks across Israel, the Shin Bet cleared for publication Sunday.

Six residents from the Shoafat refugee camp and the neighborhood of Anata are accused of establishing an IS terror cell, attempting to reach Egypt or Syria to join IS fighters, and of planning to carry out terror attacks in Israel on behalf of the group. with attempting to join the Islamic State.

Indictments were filed against four members of the squad Sunday morning at the Jerusalem District Court, while indictments were filed in the Magistrate's Court against two other squad members. The group members face charges of attempting to aid an enemy during war, membership in an illegal organization, membership in a terror organization, and aiding a terror group.

According to the investigation, the members of the cell planned several serious attacks, including mass attacks around the country and kidnappings.

The indictment said the network had been established in 2015 by 29-year-old Ahmad Shweiky, Ha'aretz reports. He is said to have set up a weekly study group that met to study IS ideology.

Members of the group allegedly cut their hair, grew out their beards, and folded the hem of their pants in a fashion customary among Islamic State supporters.

Two of the suspects, Amer Al-Baiyeh and Mohammed Hamid, are said to have travelled to Israel's southern border with Egypt six months ago where they made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain visas to cross into the Sinai peninsula, a hotbed of jihadist activity in Egypt.

Islamic State
"Islamic State militants in Sinai (File)"

In June 2016, two of the suspects allegedly travelled to Turkey via Jordan where they attempted to cross into Syria, Ha'aretz reports. The two were detained by Turkish police in the city of Gaziantep and deported back to Jordan before returning to Israel.

The indictment says that once back in Israel, the group began planning to carry out an attack, including a possible shooting attack on Tel Aviv beaches.

The group later planned to make explosives, targeting the Teddy Stadium in west Jerusalem or Israel's parliament buildings, and had saved nearly 1,000 NIS (around $266) to finance the attack before being arrested, Ha'aretz says.

Israel's Shin Bet said that when one of the group members was detained, two others made plans to kidnap an Israeli soldier to be used as collateral and demand his release.

Several Arab Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of links with IS and plans to carry out attacks inspired by the Sunni extremist group.

Israeli security officials have said two Palestinians who shot dead four Israelis in Tel Aviv in June had drawn inspiration from IS.

And Shin Bet said an Arab Israeli who killed three people in a January 1 shooting spree in Tel Aviv may have been inspired by the jihadist group.

Last month an Israeli court jailed five Arab Israelis for terms from 30 months to six years for seeking to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

Shin Bet
"Five Israeli Arabs arrested in 2014 for trying to join the Islamic State"

Agents of the Shin Bet arrested one of the suspected IS sympathizers at Ben Gurion airport in 2014 as he attempted to leave Israel for Turkey, on his way to Syria, court documents said.

The man, Karim Abu Saleh from the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin, also "decided to carry out an attack with a firearm against security personnel in Israel," said the charge sheet.

Abu Saleh attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a Kalashnikov assault rifle for that purpose, it said.

He was sentenced to six years in prison.

All the men shared IS videos which encouraged the killing of non-Muslims, carried out combat drills and practiced making petrol bombs, said the charge sheet.

"The accused were charged with membership and activity in a banned organisation," it said.

Abu Saleh was also charged with conspiracy to commit a firearms offence.

The men had all confessed under a plea bargain arrangement, the document said.

Israel has so far largely avoided IS-inspired attacks, though it estimates that around 50 of its citizens have traveled to Syria to fight with Sunni rebels.