Five charged over Western Wall terror plot
East Jerusalem residents allegedly planned to kidnap Israeli, steal his weapon, and use it to shoot worshipers
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s office brought charges Thursday against five East Jerusalem Arabs who allegedly plotted to kidnap Israelis and carry out an attack at the Western Wall.
According to the charges, the group’s ringleader was Nur Hamdan, who two months ago decided to set up a terror cell in Jerusalem. Hamdan made contact with Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the West Bank in the hope of obtaining training and weapons to carry out his plan.
After enlisting the help of four friends, and armed with tear gas, Hamdan was ready in February to lead his first attack, aimed at stealing a gun from a pair of policemen at the Haas Promenade in the capital’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. However, the group aborted the attack after an officer noticed their suspicious behavior.
In early March, the gang attempted to kidnap an armed Israeli civilian with the intention of stealing his weapon and then using it to shoot worshipers and security personnel at the Western Wall. Two of the gang picked up on the outskirts of Jerusalem a hitchhiker who was traveling into the West Bank. The would-be kidnappers expected him to be carrying a weapon, as many settlers do; however, during the journey they realized that he was unarmed and so dropped him off, unharmed, outside the settlement of Adam.
Members of the alleged cell also attempted to buy a hand grenade on the black market but were deterred by the price of NIS 700 ($193), resolving instead to manufacture a pipe-bomb, although that failed to explode.
The five were charged with conspiring to kidnap and murder, assisting the enemy during a time of war, and contacting a foreign agent. The district attorney asked the court that they be remanded in custody until trial.
The Times of Israel Community.