Five operatives from the Hamas-linked Al-Shabab al-Aqsa terrorist organization have been indicted in Jerusalem District Court in connection with a plot to attack Israeli security forces and visitors at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed Sunday.
The terrorists, all residents of Jerusalem, were arrested by Israeli security agents in recent weeks and have been involved in past terror attacks, including a deadly shooting last October in which two Israelis were killed at a Jerusalem Light Rail stop on Ammunition Hill, among others.
According to a Shin Bet statement, the group was recruited by the head of the cell, 25-year-old Mahmoud Abed al-Wahab Said Abed al-Latif, who was charged on May 29 with belonging to a terrorist organization and an outlawed group.
Al-Shabab al-Aqsa was designated by Israel in 2011 as a terrorist organization.
Indictments were filed Sunday against all five on charges of violating Israel’s anti-terrorism laws, along with a request to extend their remand until the end of legal proceedings.
The planned attacks were geared towards discouraging non-Islamic visitors from coming to the Temple Mount, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, believed to be the location of the Holy of Holies of both ancient Jewish Holy Temples. It is the third holiest site in Islam, and the location of the Al Aqsa mosque and that of the Dome of the Rock.