Israeli security forces recently dismantled an eastern Jerusalem terrorist cell under the command of a French-Palestinian operative who was deported to Paris in 2022, authorities said on Tuesday.
The Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said they had detained five Jerusalem residents on suspicion that they had been recruited by senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) operative Salah Hamouri.
Hamouri has served prison time in Israel for his ties to the PFLP, which the United States and European Union have designated a terrorist organization. He plead guilty in 2008 to planning the assassination of former Israeli chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and was released three years later in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.
Hamouri subsequently found employment as a lawyer at Addameer, a PFLP-linked NGO that Jerusalem designated a terror group in Oct. 2021. While Hamouri has denied being part of the PFLP, the Marxist terror group in 2022 confirmed his membership.
After Israel revoked Hamouri’s Jerusalem residency permit in 2022 and deported him to France, he “maintained contact with terrorist elements operating on behalf of the ‘Shi’ite axis’ for the purpose of directing attacks and terrorist activity inside Israel,” the Shin Bet and Israel Police said on Tuesday.
Hamouri “exploited his origins and connections within Israel to recruit local terrorist operatives, alongside his overt activism on the Palestinian issue,” they charged.
A Shin Bet investigation revealed that in 2024 and 2025, Hamouri met with members of the cell in Europe and ordered them to establish a cell that would carry out attacks. He allegedly also provided them with a device for encrypted communication.
Subsequently, “various actions were taken by members of the cell to advance terrorist activity in the Jerusalem area,” according to the charges.
As of Tuesday, indictments had been filed against two of the suspects, brothers Yazid and Saeed Dadu, the Israel Police and Shin Bet said. They face charges including membership in a terrorist organization, prohibited transactions involving property for terrorist purposes, conspiracy to commit a crime and attempted conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.
Hamouri, since being deported to France four years ago, has toured and given lectures to citizens, activists and prisoners while denying the Jewish state’s right to exist. He has also incited violence and met with fellow PFLP terrorists. Several French towns have made him an honorary citizen.
The French Embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a JNS request for comment.
