2 East Jerusalemites jailed for Islamic State-inspired plot

Two Palestinians from East Jerusalem were sentenced to prison terms on Monday for planning a 2015 bomb attack on Israeli security forces in the name of the Islamic State terror group.

Mouasab Elian, 23, and Samir Abed Rabbo, 38, both of the Sur Baher neighborhood, were convicted by the Jerusalem District Court in November.

On Monday, the court sentenced Elian to 10 years in prison, and Rabbo 9.

According to the indictment filed last March, Elian attempted to travel to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State after becoming a supporter of the terror group through a religious group he studied with in Jerusalem in 2014.

But he only made it as far as Jordan, where he was arrested, interrogated and deported back to Israel before he could acquire a Jordanian passport to go to Turkey and then to Syria.

Back in Israel, Elian started fundraising in an effort to travel directly from Israel to Turkey. The court said he also looked into joining the Syria-based terror group through its affiliate terror organization in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

At some point in 2015, Elian met Rabbo, a neighbor with IS sympathies who learned the basics of bomb-making from online videos.

The indictment said the pair were trying to make an explosive device and bought a cellphone to be used as a detonator, a coffee grinder for grinding the necessary materials, a voltmeter and iron oxide powder.

The pair were found guilty of a number of offenses, including membership in an illegal organization, membership in a terror group, supporting a terror group and contacting foreign agents.

Over the past several years, the number of Palestinian and Israeli Arab volunteer recruits has steadily increased among Syrian rebel and terror groups. The Shin Bet intelligence agency estimates that more than 40 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State since 2014.