Suspected East Jerusalem terror network exposed

The Shin Bet and Jerusalem District Police uncovered a suspected terror cell composed of dozens of members, all of whom were allegedly involved in a series of attacks against security personnel and civilians in the capital, it was cleared for publication Monday.

The cell members were said to be all Arab residents of Jerusalem and to have operated in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur. The suspects, mostly men in their teens and early 20s, allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at riot police and at homes of Jewish civilians in East Jerusalem.

On one occasion, according to the Shin Bet, a number of suspects threw a pipe bomb at a police vehicle.

The men all carried Israeli ID cards.

The Shin Bet did not say when the cell was uncovered.

Marwan Jeyousi, a 20-year-old member of Fatah, was named as the leader of the cell. Jiousi began rallying his fellow cell members in July last year, in the wake of the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and burned to death by Jewish extremists.

Jeyousi was arrested by Israeli security forces in August, after which Abd al-Mughrabi, 23, replaced him as the cell’s leader, Walla reported. Mughrabi was said to have escalated the attacks carried out against police targets, and the cell under his command began to produce explosive charges.

Following the Shin Bet investigation into the attacks, the State Prosecutor’s Office decided to file an indictment against five members of the cell.

More indictments are to be filed in the coming days, it said.