Nazareth resident accused of seeking to join Hamas, carry out attack on Ben Gvir

A Nazareth resident was arrested on suspicion of attempting to join Hamas and advance terror activity, including an attack on a government minister, the Israel Police and the Shin Bet said on Tuesday, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir naming the minister as himself.

Muhammad Awad, 29, was accused of making contact with Hamas in a bid to join it and receive assistance in planning an attack.

The name of the minister Awad allegedly planned to target was not disclosed by the authorities, but by the minister himself.

“This is the ninth time terror groups have made me a target and have tried to harm me,” Ben Gvir said in a post on X, thanking the authorities for protecting him, and vowed to continue implementing his controversial policies.

The police and Shin Bet did not describe how the suspect had been planning to carry out the attack.

State prosecutors are planning to file an indictment against Awad, authorities added.

Among the other known attempts to kill the minister was a plot uncovered by the Shin Bet in September by would-be assassins in a Hebron-based Hamas cell to utilize explosive-laden drones, and a plan busted in April 2024.

In 2022, when he was an opposition lawmaker, Israeli security forces uncovered an active Hamas terror cell in East Jerusalem that planned a shooting attack to kill Ben Gvir.

At the time, the then-MK blamed left-wing activists, as well as then-prime minister Naftali Bennett and then-foreign minister Yair Lapid, for the Hamas plot.