Israel arrested three Israeli Arab teens, two of them minors, from the Nazareth area for planning to carry out terror attacks inspired by Hamas, Israeli authorities announced on Monday as indictments were filed.
Indictments were due to be filed on Monday in the Nazareth District Court.
An investigation by the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israeli Police found that the three produced Molotov cocktails which they planned to throw at security forces.
The adult was identified as Mobin Ahmed Younes, a 19-year-old resident of Reina, an Arab village adjacent to Nazareth. The minors were only identified as from northern Israel.
The 19-year-old Younes frequented the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount during Ramadan and participated rallies while wearing the terror group’s flag. He was also filmed inside Al Aqsa expressing his identification with Hamas.
Tensions on the Temple Mount were high during the Islamic month of Ramadan, which overlapped with the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday. Muslims barricaded inside the Al Aqsa Mosque were evacuated by Israeli police.
In another case, one of the suspects was photographed on the roof of a house in his village holding a weapon and wrapped in Hamas flags.
The indictments added that the three actively read material written by Hamas.
Arab terror groups are known for exploiting social media to recruit children.
“The terrorist organization Hamas continues to work to spread its ideology among the citizens of the State of Israel and its residents and, among other things, works to recruit them through propaganda distributed on the Temple Mount and on social networks, with the aim of promoting terrorist activity in Israel,” the Shin Bet said in a statement announcing the arrests.
