Israeli trio accused of joining IS, burning stadium to halt concert

Three Arab Israeli men living in the northern Israeli city of Tayibe were indicted Thursday for carrying out an arson attack in the name of the Islamic State terror group and attempting to dig a smuggling tunnel to the West Bank, officials said.

After studying Islamic State ideology, Ibrahim Abdel Halim Sheikh Yusuf, Amir Abdel Hakim Jabara and Muhammad Tamim Nashaf from the Arab Israeli city of Tayibe (not to be confused with the West Bank city Taybeh) pledged allegiance to the terrorist group in May, the Shin Bet security service said.

They were arrested on September 14, three days after they tried to set fire to a soccer stadium in Tayibe where an Arab Israeli singer, Haitham Khalayleh, was supposed to perform, the Shin Bet said.

The trio said they committed the arson as the concert was scheduled for September 11 at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which they found offensive to their religion, according to the indictment.

The group failed to burn down the stadium, but set fire to a control panel and to some chairs around the stage, causing NIS 78,000 ($20,000) worth of damage, according to the indictment.

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When their arson failed to prevent the concert, Nashaf, 32, tried to get the performance canceled with a fake bomb scare, calling police and warning them of an explosive device in the stadium, the indictment said.

This too failed, and the performance took place as scheduled.

Nearly a year before the arson attack, the group tried to dig a tunnel between Tayibe and the nearby Palestinian city of Tulkarem, just across the security fence, the Shin Bet said.

Through the tunnel, which they began digging in October 2015, the three men hoped to smuggle weapons into Israel for attacks, according to the indictment filed against them.

The suspects told interrogators those weapons would be used on “judgment day” when they would have to fight the “infidels,” the Shin Bet said.

However, there was no indication in the indictment filed against them that the men had made any attempts to purchase such weaponry.

The three men “only managed to dig a few meters and they did not cross the security fence,” the Shin Bet said.

The tunnel began in a cave discovered by one of the cell members and measured four meters (13 feet). The project was abandoned a few weeks after it began, according to the indictment.

After the men were arrested, the tunnel, along with a hole where they planned to keep weapons, was discovered and searched by the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet said.

In April 2016, Jabara, 20, attempted to join the Islamic State in Syria by traveling through Turkey, but was stopped at the border by local police, the Shin Bet said.

When he returned to Israel, Jabara was interrogated by both the Shin Bet and Israel Police, the Shin Bet said, but was ultimately released.

Yusuf, 26, also planned to join the fighting in Syria, building a pedal-powered glider to cross the border from Israel, though this plan did not come to fruition, according to the security agency.

The three men were arrested on September 14. They were indicted in the Central District Court in Lod on a litany of charges, including arson and belonging to a terrorist organization.

Yusuf was also charged with illegally creating a weapon for a pipe bomb he constructed in 2013, according to the indictment.

Earlier this month, Israeli officials revealed that a group of Palestinians operating out of East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp had attempted to join the Islamic State and planned to carry out a series of attacks across Israel for the terror group.

According to the charges, four of the six men planned to carry out attacks across the country, but “with an emphasis on Jerusalem.” The attacks planned included bombings, kidnappings, shootings and stabbings, according to the indictment.