3 Israelis charged with IS-inspired attack

Three Israeli Arab 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, officials say.

After studying Islamic State ideology, Ibrahim Abdel Halim Sheikh Yusuf, Amir Abdel Hakim Jabara and Muhammad Tamim Nashaf pledged allegiance to the group in May.

In September, the trio set fire to a soccer stadium in the town where an Arab Israeli singer was performing — something they considered offensive to their religion, the Shin Bet security service says.

The night before the concert, they 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. However, the performance took place as scheduled.

The trio also tried to dig a tunnel under the nearby security fence in order to smuggle weapons from Tulkarem in the West Bank to Israel, according to the indictment filed against them.

According to their testimonies, those weapons would be used on “judgment day” when they would have to fight the “infidels.”

In April, 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.

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, a short while after they set the fires in the soccer stadium.

They have been indicted in the Central District Court in Lod on a litany of charges, including arson and belonging to an illegal organization.

— Judah Ari Gross