A GSS (Shin Bet) operation carried out in conjunction with Israel Police September 17 netted three Israeli Arab citizens, residents of the city of Umm al-Fahm north-east of Hadera, all of them ISIS supporters. Two of the detainees planned a shooting attack on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, similar to the one that resulted in the murder of two policemen on July 14.
Interrogation of the detainees, Sa’id Ghasoub Mahmoud Jabarin, 26, Faras Salah Mahmoud Mahajneh, 24, and a minor, 16, has also led to police confiscating two handguns and ammunition, as well as a Carl Gustav submachine gun. Jabrin and the minor were the plotters of a new attack on the Temple Mount.
The arrests and interrogation of the three suspects have led to the arrests of additional suspects in the Umm al-Fahm area, who were involved in illegal weapons trafficking, and additional illegal weapons were seized during their detention.
A senior Shin Bet official issued a statement saying, “The investigation has revealed that relatively shortly after the murderous attack in July 2017 on the Temple Mount, two residents of Umm al-Fahm planned a similar attack inside the compound. The attack was prevented due to accurate intelligence from the Shin Bet security service, which led to the arrests of the cell members before they could carry out their attack.”
“The General Security Service considers Israelis who support the terrorist organization Islamic State a serious security threat, and even more so those who maintain contact with the organization’s activists and operate under the auspices of the organization inside the State of Israel. The GSS will continue to act decisively using enforcement measures required to prevent the dissemination of the ISIS doctrine in Israel and any other activity that harms the security of the state.”
The GSS announcement noted that at the moment ISIS is beating a retreat and is in a state of distress in most of the battlefields where it is engaged. The reality on the ground in the combat zones in which ISIS operates is in complete contradiction to the supposedly positive picture that the terrorist organization is trying to generate, mainly through the social network, for the benefit of potential new recruits.
In fact, goes the GSS statement, terrorist operatives present in the battlefields are exposed to constant mortal danger, under extremely harsh living conditions.