Ahmed Khalil
Three Israeli Arabs given jail time for planning to form ISIS cell in Israel
One of the suspects is serving life in prison for the murder of a taxi driver, and receives additional 2.5 years; he contacted his accomplices on the outside using a cellphone he had hidden; the accomplices will serve 5 years in prison each.
Three Israeli Arabs received prison sentences on Thursday for supporting ISIS and planning to form an ISIS terror cell in Israel.
The three—Ahmed Khalil, 27, from Nazareth; Mohammad Sharif, 23, from Nazareth; and Hamed Ghazaleh, 24, from Yafa an-Naseriyye (Jaffa of Nazareth)—were convicted of forming an unlawful association, having contact with a foreign agent, conspiring to commit a crime and planning to form an ISIS cell in Israel.
The Nazareth District Court sentenced Sharif and Ghazaleh to five years' imprisonment each.
Khalil, who identifies with Salafi jihadism, has been serving a life sentence since 2010 for the murder of a taxi driver. He received an additional two-and-a-half years to his sentence.
Ahmed Khalil
Khalil and Ghazaleh had previously known each other, and the two spoke on the phone via a contraband cellphone Khalil had kept hidden in prison.
In July 2015, Khalil called Ghazaleh and said his father was coming to visit him in prison and that the father would pass on a message to Ghazaleh from him.
On Wednesday, it was cleared for publication that a young Israeli Arab from Jaljulia was arrested for supporting ISIS and planning to join the terror organization in Syria.
The Jaljulia suspect's brother crossed the border into Syria in October 2015 using a paraglider, and a relative claimed the suspect "contacted people in Syria to check on his brother, not to infiltrate into Syria himself. There's no basis to the suspicions and we hope he is released soon.
Recently, three residents of Tayibe were also arrested and confessed in their investigation to supporting ISIS, planning to leave for Syria and digging tunnels to smuggle weapons under the security barrier.
