Israeli security forces earlier this month arrested an Arab national who swore allegiance to ISIS and had plans to carry out terror attacks in the Jewish state, the Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Tuesday.
The Arab suspect, identified by the Israel Police as 19-year-old Abed al-Rahman Mahajna from Umm al-Fahm in central Israel, was charged on Tuesday after being taken into custody approximately three weeks ago.
According to authorities, Mahajna declared his allegiance to the terror organization in recent months and was involved in Arab riots during the Israel Defense Forces’ “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in May 2021.
During the arrest raid, security forces discovered documents with instructions on how to produce bombs, as well as a will he had prepared about a year ago in which he expressed his desire to become a “martyr.”
“This incident joins the series of arrests made against Israeli citizens who planned to carry out terrorist activities in Israel,” an unnamed ISA official told local media, adding that “the trend in which Israeli citizens are involved in terrorism and espionage is extremely serious, and security will act hard against those involved.”
שוטרי מחוז חוף ושירות הביטחון הכללי עצרו תושב אום אל פחם שנשבע אמונים לדאעש ותכנן לבצע פעילות טרור בישראל
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) October 29, 2024
לפני כשלושה שבועות, במהלך פעילות משולבת של משטרת ישראל ושירות הביטחון הכללי, נעצר לחקירה עבד אלרחמאן מוחמד אבראהים מחאג'נה (19) אזרח ישראלי, תושב אום אל פחם, בחשד כי התכוון…
Last week, seven Arabs from Jerusalem were arrested by security forces on suspicion of plotting to murder scientists and officials on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The suspects, from the neighborhood of Beit Safafa in the eastern part of the Jewish state’s capital, were allegedly asked by Tehran to kill a nuclear scientist and the mayor of a large city.
In August, Israeli forces dismantled an Arab-Israeli terrorist squad that had detailed plans to carry out a combined shooting and bombing in the Galilee region, the country’s security agencies revealed on Sept. 26.
The cell, which was led by a resident of the town of Arraba in the Galilee and also included Palestinians from Judea and Samaria, was detained on Aug. 12, according to the Israel Police and ISA.
Five months earlier, authorities nabbed 13 Arabs from northern Israel who were said to have been planning terrorist attacks on behalf of Hamas. The suspects, most of them residents of Sakhnin in the Lower Galilee, purchased weapons from terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
One-third of Israel’s 2.095 million Arab citizens believe that Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of primarily Jewish civilians is in line with Arab, Palestinian and Islamic values, according to a December 2023 poll.
