Four Palestinians 'planned shooting attack at wedding'

East Jerusalem residents accused of plotting to dress as ultra-Orthodox Jews and shoot guests at a popular Jerusalem event hall

By Adiv Sterman 5 February 2014, 5:12 pm 10 Edit

Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Four East Jerusalem Palestinians were indicted Wednesday for planning to carry out a large-scale shooting attack at a popular event hall in the city. All four suspects, aged 19-21, were charged with conspiracy to aid an enemy in wartime.

According to the indictment, filed with the Jerusalem District Court and made public Wednesday, two of the four suspects, residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, planned to dress as ultra-Orthodox Jews, enter a wedding or other event at Jerusalem’s “Nof” hall in the Bait Vagan neighborhood concealing firearms beneath their clothes, then open fire at the guests.

The suspects, the indictment read, approached a Palestinian arms dealer in the West Bank, who agreed to sell them two Uzi sub-machine guns for NIS 50,000. The defendants then approached another man and convinced him to help raise money in order to acquire the weapons.

In December, three of the suspects drove to the Nof hall to survey the site. They examined both the main and staff entrances in order to determine the most convenient way to enter the hall, the court indictment stated.

A short while later, after one of the three original suspects decided not to take part in the attack, the two remaining suspects recruited a fourth man.

A remand hearing was set for Thursday.