The Southern District Attorney's Office filed an indictment Thursday against a 16-year-old resident of southern Israel for security offenses. A joint statement by the Shin Bet and police spokespersons reported that the teen planned to join ISIS and had begun to prepare explosive devices for terrorist activity.
Shin Bet forces and police arrested the teenager, an Israeli citizen, two and a half weeks ago on suspicion of committing security offenses inspired by terrorist organizations. During the investigation, it emerged that he identifies with and supports the Islamic State (ISIS) organization, and that he was extensively invested in the organization's content and its extremist ideology.
The investigation revealed that he planned to join ISIS, and was both thinking of joining the organization's ranks in combat arenas outside the country or alternatively of establishing a terror cell inside Israel that would carry out attacks against Jews. It also emerged that he had carried out activities to prepare explosives and manufacture charges, as part of the preparation stages for joining the terrorist organization. In addition, numerous documents were found in his possession dealing with the training and method of preparing explosives and charges for terrorist activity.
"This report presents a worrying picture, according to which a minor, an Israeli citizen, consumed extremist ISIS content and saw himself as part of an extremist terrorist organization," according to the joint statement from the Shin Bet and the police. "We will continue to act resolutely to detect and prevent terrorist activity, and we will take all measures at our disposal to thwart any activity that endangers the security of the State of Israel."
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This is not the first time that teenage Israeli citizens have been accused of involvement in terrorist activity. Last week, indictments were filed against three teenage residents of Israel's northern triangle area who assisted terrorist operatives in the West Bank, and against another teenager who planned to carry out terrorist activity inspired by ISIS.
"The investigations reveal a worrying picture according to which minors, Israeli citizens, are in direct and continuous contact with terrorist operatives in the West Bank, sharing the extremist ideology of the terrorist operatives as well as their goals, including harming the security forces and citizens of the country," a Shin Bet official said.