East Jerusalem teens indicted for planning attacks
Prosecutors say eight defendants plotted stone-throwing and Molotov cocktail assaults when they met in prison
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleStuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Jerusalem District prosecutors filed indictments Monday against eight East Jerusalem teenagers accused of conspiracy to commit a crime, rioting, attacking a police officer and other offenses.
According to the indictments, filed at the Jerusalem Youth Magistrate’s Court, the defendants, aged 17-18, began planning attacks on Israelis when they found themselves incarcerated together for other offenses at the Megiddo Prison in 2015.
The group, all of whom come from the Tsur Baher and Issawiya neighborhoods, discussed plans for throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces after their release, and one suggested they obtain guns for shooting attacks.
Some of the gang members were also indicted for rioting — including incidents on the Temple Mount — and inciting to violence in Facebook posts.
Four of the defendants had served time in prison for a 2013 stone-throwing attack that targeted the vehicle in which two-year-old Avigail Ben Zion was traveling with her parents in Armon Hanetziv, a predominantly Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood just over the Green Line.
Ben Zion, whose family was returning from a day out at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, sustained a moderate head wound from the incident.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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