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Itongadol.- The Northern District Attorney\’s Office on Thursday filed indictments with the Nazareth District Court against seven Israeli-Arabs for founding an Islamic State cell to carry out a terror attack on Israel.
The indictment stated that the defendants illegally purchased weapons, made contact with ISIS agents in Syria and started to plan a shooting attack in the Emek Valley and on the police.
One of the defendants, Ahmed Ahmad, 26, of Nazareth is already serving a life prison sentence for his involvement in the murder of taxi driver Yafim Weinstein in 2009.
He is accused of corresponding by cellphone with the others to advise them how best to perpetrate their planned terror attacks.
Three more defendants were accused of the most serious crimes and were named as Mahmoud Ihaav Sarif, 22, of Nazareth, Ahmad Omer Hagana, 20, of Yafia and Muhammad Hamad Gazal, 23, of Yafia.
The four defendants made contact with another Israeli-Arab who is still at large fighting with ISIS in Syria and who encouraged them in their connections with ISIS.
Sarif, Hagana and Gazal performed their weapons and military training in Hursha in October 2014 using a berretta, along with three others not indicted Thursday.
On October 5, 2014, the other three not part of this case flew from Israel to Turkey and then made their way to Syria, though one of them, Hamza Magasme, returned to Israel on October 24, 2014 and was separately arrested and indicted.
Besides the above defendants, the other three defendants in this case were accused of conspiracy to commit a felony and the weapons related crimes.
Ibrahim and Ali Jubara, 35 and 32, of Purdis are accused of selling 20 bullets to the other defendants in April 2015. The last defendant is Baha Aldin Naaran, 22 of Yafia.
Separate from the ISIS-related counts, the defendants are also accused of attacking and destroying a lottery kiosk in Yafia in March 2012 with Molotov cocktails because of their opposition to its sale of alcohol.