Taibe man charged over terror activities with West Bank cell

A 19-year-old man from Taibe was arrested and charged with a number of serious security and terror offenses, police and the Shin Bet say in a joint statement.

The statement says Mahmoud Rafik Abd al-Rahim Massarwa was charged today for a series of serious security offenses, including aiding the enemy in war, membership in a terrorist organization, training for terror purposes, using a weapon for terrorism, aggravated sabotage as an act of terror, and using a firearm.

Security officials say that the suspect received Israeli citizenship under family unification rights, and took advantage of his freedom of movement in order to carry out terror activities with a cell in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm in the West Bank.

The suspect’s terror activities came to light during an investigation into an arson attack on a store in Taibe that was looted and torched after the owner made a donation of some 50 kids’ bicycles to families evacuated from communities close to the border with the Gaza Strip.