Israeli security forces arrested a 17-year-old resident of the Negev who planned to carry out terrorist attacks on behalf of Hamas, the Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Sunday.
According to the joint statement, the minor was detained on Oct. 15 on charges of supporting Gaza’s Hamas terror organization, “expressing his intentions to carry out an attack and carrying out actions in preparation.
“The Israel Security Agency and the Israel Police will continue to act resolutely to identify and prevent terrorist acts,” Sunday’s statement added. The agencies vowed to “thwart any activity that endangers the security of the State of Israel, the security forces and its citizens.”
Two Arab minors from the Triangle region were indicted last week on charges of conspiring to carry out acts of terrorism against security forces.
According to the indictment filed in the Central District Court in Lod, one of the minors was recruited to a terrorist cell in August of last year. He allegedly received training in explosives and subsequently acquired chemical materials to conduct experiments. He then recruited three additional members, including the second minor in the indictment.
In October, security forces arrested an Israeli who swore loyalty to ISIS and had plans to carry out attacks inside the Jewish state. During the arrest of Abed al-Rahman Mahajna, 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.”
Also last month, seven Arabs from Jerusalem were arrested by Israeli security forces on suspicion of plotting to murder scientists and officials on behalf of Iran. The suspects, from the Beit Safafa neighborhood in the southeastern part of the Israeli 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, security agencies revealed on Sept. 26.
The terrorist cell, which was led by a resident of the town of Arraba in the Lower Galilee and included Palestinians from Judea and Samaria, was detained on Aug. 12, according to the Israel Police and Shin Bet.
Five months earlier, Israeli authorities nabbed 13 Arabs from the north 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 Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
One-third of Israel’s 2.095 million Arab citizens believe that the massacre of 1,200 people—primarily Jewish civilians—by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, is in line with Arab, Palestinian and Islamic values, according to a poll taken in December.
