Two Israeli Arabs Indicted for Plotting ISIS Attacks

The two men, both from Tamra, downloaded Islamic State content and manuals, made contact with members of the terror group and wanted to set up a car bomb in a Jewish city, indictment says.

Two residents of the Israeli Arab city of Tamra were arrested and indicted for assisting and plotting to carry out terror attacks on behalf of the Islamic State terror group, a Shin Bet statement released Thursday said.

The Shin Bet and Israel Police arrested Amin Yassin, 22, a student studying medicine in Slovakia, and Ali Bin Armoush, 28, in a joint operation in July, on suspicion of plotting to harm Israel’s security in the name of the Islamic State.

Bin Armoush had been investigated in the past on suspicion of security crimes and connections to the terror group, the Shin Bet statement, which was cleared for release Thursday, said.

Over the course of the investigation, the Shin Bet said they learned the two support the Islamic State, and see themselves as its emissaries until an Islamic caliphate is established in Israel.

The Haifa District Prosecutor’s Office presented the indictment to the Haifa District Court Thursday, accusing Armoush and Yassin of security crimes, connection to a terror organization, assisting a terror organization and other crimes.

According to the indictment, Bin Armoush and Yassin supported the group throughout 2014. In 2018, the two made contact with members of the group, with whom they shared Islamic State content over the Telegram messaging service.

The Shin Bet said that the two downloaded large amounts of Islamic State content on to their computers, including manuals for preparing weapons and carrying out terror attacks “in order to carry out jihad at the right time.”

The indictment says that the two also conspired to assassinate Yassin’s cousin, who served as a U.S. soldier, as they believed he participated in the killing of Muslims during his service in Afghanistan. They also discussed their willingness to plant a car bomb in the center of a Jewish city in Israel.

The prosecution requested that the court remand the suspects until the end of legal proceedings.

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