Three arrested on suspicion of planning terror attacks against Israeli civilians, soldiers

Police officers and Shin Bet agents nabbed three people, including a father and son, suspected of plotting terror attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces.

The suspects — all currently in custody — planned to stage a bombing attack at a checkpoint in northern Jerusalem, assassinate someone they believed to be an Israeli air force pilot, and shoot up a nightclub in central Israel, police say.

A senior police investigator tells Ynet that the probe represents “one of the most serious cases we’ve handled in the unit,” saying the arrest of the three suspects prevented a mass casualty attack.

The investigation was opened after the father, who resides with his son in Kufr Aqab, reached out to an undercover cop with an offer to sell him explosives meant for terror attacks.

The father and son had both been employed as cooks at a restaurant and retirement home, respectively, in central Israel, according to Ynet.

The outlet reports that the father is an Arab Muslim who married and had a son with a Jewish Israeli woman. The two have since divorced.

The detained son, Jewish by virtue of his mother, reportedly converted to Islam after he was disqualified from serving in the IDF, for reasons that remain unclear.

The pair was arrested by the Jerusalem District police’s investigations and intelligence unit in late June. Officers seized bombmaking components, ammunition and ready-to-use pipe bombs when raiding apartments that the two had stayed in, police say.

The third suspect, a resident of East Jerusalem in his 20s, was arrested on suspicion of preparing explosives with the father and hiding them in his home. He also planned to attack security forces.

A prosecutor’s declaration was filed against the three, and they will be charged with security offenses in the coming days, law enforcement announces.