Five members of the same Arab-Israeli family have been charged with setting up an Islamic State (ISIS) terror cell with the intent to carry out terror attacks inside Israel, it was cleared for publication Tuesday.
According to the Israel Security Agency (ISA), the five terrorists – who are all from the northern Israeli town of Nazareth – exchanged Facebook messages extolling ISIS’s jihadist ideology, trained with weapons and planned to wage a terrorist campaign inside the Jewish state.
None of them had any plans to travel to Syria or Iraq, investigators said. The revelation comes just one day after senior Israeli security sources estimated that an ISIS terror attack inside Israel was only a matter of time.
The five were identified as Abd al Karim Ihab abd al Rahman Sliman (22), Mahmoud Ihab abd al Rahman Sliman (18), Abd al Karim Jamal Ali Sliman (23), Mohammed Salah Mohammed Sliman (19), and Murad Mohammed Salim Sliman (27).
From the ISA investigation it became clear that during the last year, the five worked to obtain weapons and even trained in using during repeated meetings. In the meetings they expressed support for ISIS and praised the concept of jihad against the “infidels.”
During their investigation, they gave over two rifles that they used for sporadic target practice at Hursha, located adjacent to Nazareth. One rifle was of the SKS model, while the other was a Carl Gustav variety.
ISA noted that during September 2014, the defense minister declared ISIS an illegal association, and one-and-a-half months ago the government of Israel declared ISIS a terrorist organization.
Indictments have been filed against the members of the terror cell by the northern district attorney’s office at the Nazareth District Court.
While only a few dozen Israeli Arabs are known to have traveled to Syria to join ISIS – far lower than the numbers from surrounding Middle Eastern countries, or even in Europe – a growing number of ISIS cells have been broken up by security forces, indicating a growing threat from the jihadist group.
Most such cells – including one broken up just last month – focus on recruiting fighters to travel out of Israel to ISIS’s “Caliphate.” However, a growing number of ISIS terror plots inside Israeli borders have been uncovered in recent month, including a cell which planned an attack on an IDF base in northern Israel.
Source: Arutz Sheva