'Israeli-Arabs planned attack on soldiers'
Two Israeli-Arabs suspected of planning terror attack on soldiers, security guard as part of global jihad movement spearheaded by al-Qaeda; Pair sought to stab IDF soldier near Kfar Qassem in order to nab his weapon, use it to shoot other soldiers
Two Israeli-Arabs from Jaljulia, aged 17 and 21, were indicted in a district court in Tel Aviv on Thursday for planning to carry out terrorist attacks as part of al-Qaeda's calls for worldwide jihad.
The two are accused of planning to stab an IDF soldier at the Kfar Qassem junction in order to steal his weapon and use it to shoot at other soldiers at the intersection.
The pair was arrested during a joint operation by the Shin Bet, Border Police and Police special forces unit.
Both men also admitted to planning to knife a security guard at the entrance to the Sde Hemed community. They planned to enter the town with the stolen weapon in order to shoot at community residents.
They also attempted to prepare improvised explosive devices and experimented with these contraptions near Jaljulia.
The planned terrorist attacks were never carried out. The two men arrived to the Kfar Qassem junction armed with knives with the goal of picking up a hitchhiking solider. However, they returned home empty-handed after they discovered that there were no soldiers waiting at the bus stop.
Their scheme to attack a security guard at Sde Hemed was also thwarted when they found that there was no guard at the community's entrance. The would-be terrorists then headed towards Kfar Saba where they were stopped by police.
Police found knives in the vehicle which the men claimed were for self-defense purposes.
One of the accused, Akrama Jureen, 21, admitted during his interrogation that he was influenced by calls by various Islamic terrorist organizations to take up the cause of worldwide jihad. He claimed to have visited websites that serve as mouthpieces for violent jihadist movements that feature religious leaders connected to al-Qaeda imploring Muslims to carry out jihad.
Jureen allegedly showed the other accused man the videos of Muslim leaders speaking favorably about global jihad in order to convince him to join him in planning terrorist attacks on Israeli soldiers.
The security establishment released a statement saying that "this case demonstrates the ability of ideology of global jihad to penetrate (Israeli society) primarily though the exposure to the various Internet sites (these groups) maintain.
"This ideological penetration is manifested through independent actions and not only helps strengthen the ideology, but also serves as a motive to carry out terrorist attacks."
