The suspect
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Explosive belt (Archive)
Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Office
Indictment: Israeli-Arab youth planned attack in Nazareth Illit
Cleared for publication: Police, Shin Bet arrest Nazareth teen who planned to carry out suicide bombing at Plaza Hotel in Nazareth Illit
It was cleared for publication Sunday that about two weeks ago the police and Shin Bet arrested a 17-year-old Israeli-Arab near Nazareth who had been planning to carry out a suicide terror attack at the Plaza Hotel in Nazareth Illit.
An indictment was issued against the young man in the Nazareth District Court Sunday.
A police investigation revealed that the accused, a resident of the territories who currently lives with his mother and sister in Nazareth, was scheduled to receive an explosive belt from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activists, but was arrested two days prior to the rendezvous.
Information regarding the youth's plans was received at the Nazareth police station two weeks ago, and transferred to investigation by the Amakim Central Unit. According to the intelligence, the youth had on two occasions declared his intention to commit a suicide bombing.
The youth told his interrogators that he used to live in the northern West Bank village of Dan with his father. He claimed that whenever he would come to visit his father, Islamic Jihad and Hamas members would attack him and taunt him for allegedly collaborating with the State of Israel.
The teen said that he agreed to carry out the attack in order to prove the activists wrong.
"The indictment is question is very severe. We are glad we succeeded in detaining the teen and thus prevent a disaster," head of the Amakim Central Unit, Superintendent Ami Mualem said.
The indictment lists several charges, including attempt to carry out a suicide bombing, conspiring to commit a crime and contact with a foreign agent.
