3 Israeli Arabs jailed for trying to start IS cell

Three Israeli Arabs were sentenced to jail terms of 30 to 60 months on Thursday for planning attacks on Israelis and supporting the Islamic State.

Muhammad Sharif, 23, and Muhammad Gazalla, 24, both from the village of Yafa an-Naseriyye, near Nazareth, were given 60 months behind bars and 18-month suspended terms for a list of offenses including membership in an illegal association, weapons possession, firing in a residential area and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Gazalla had already been handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for other offenses, including attempted arson.

Ahmed Halil Ahmed of Nazareth was given a 30-month sentence for conspiracy to commit a crime, to be served out in addition to a life term he is currently serving for the 2010 murder of Jewish taxi driver Yefim Weinstein. He was also handed a 12-month suspended sentence valid for three years.

A fourth defendant, Ahmed Mahajna, is to be sentenced separately following his request to change his testimony.

The four, arrested in September 2015, formed part of a seven-man cell operating in northern Israel.

Sharif and Mahajna’s links to Islamic State were influenced by their acquaintance with, and the defection of, three other men from their village — Hamza Majamseh, Muhammad Knanah and Muhammad Kilani — to Syria in October 2014 to join the ranks of the group. Majamseh returned to Israel in October 2014 and was arrested. The other two are presumably still fighting for IS.

In his decision, Judge George Azoulay of the Nazareth District Court set out the complicated twists and turns of the often bumbling attempts by members of the group to set up an IS cell in Israel.

These included a bid — ultimately unsuccessful — by Ahmed, while behind bars, to get Gazella to buy him an M16 rifle “with attachments” for up to NIS 50,000 ($13,000). Gazalla was assisted in that task by Mahajna, but their efforts came to nothing because the cash was not available when the right gun, at the right price, came up.

Sharif and Mahajna established contact through Facebook with the three friends who had gone to Syria, receiving photographs of them posing with weapons and rockets. The three suggested that Sharif and Mahajna join them, but Gazalla advised them against doing so.

Kilani suggested that Sharif carry out a military operation in Israel on behalf of IS, promising that if Sharif and Mahajna did carry out an attack, he and Knanah would return home to Israel to open an IS front.

Kilani said he would like to come back to Israel and blow himself up with an explosives belt.

Gazella was in favor, and he, Sharif and Mahajna began watching IS-related films and developing support for the idea of an Islamic state.

Gazalla let Sharif and Mahadjna practice shooting on his pistol, which he said he had acquired for the purpose of “jihad.” The two novices obtained 20 bullets from one of Mahajna’s uncles.

Gazalla also suggested that the two novices start to raise and sell parrots to make money to buy the weapons they would need for their mission, a scheme that the two agreed to.

The developing cell considered several options for a terror attack, including shooting at an Israeli army base, attacking a police jeep and even setting a business on fire for selling alcohol.

They set up watch at several locations, to scout out a jeep that they could attack and restaurants that they could set on fire.

In the end, the group was arrested before it could carry out any attack.