CAPTURED: ISIS cell in northern Israel planned to blow up Arab school

Six Arab Israeli terror operatives plotting several attacks against Christian, Jewish and Muslim targets were arrested. 

By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News

An Islamic State cell that was planning several terror attacks, including blowing up a Muslim high school, was raided by Israeli authorities in the northern city of Nazareth, the Shin Bet security agency announced on Sunday.

Six Arab Israeli terror operatives were arrested: Muhammad Ihab Suleiman; 25 Afar Suleiman, 21; Moaman Nijam, 20; Ahmed Belal Suleiman, 18; Jahad Bakr, 20, and another unidentified minor. Muhammad Suleiman was previously known to the authorities as having ties to IS. The rest were found to have engaged in terrorist activities with the terror group online, the Shin Bet said.

They met in secret and plotted to carry out several terror attacks, the most major being against a Muslim high school in Nazareth, for “operating in the way of ‘the infidels,'” the suspects were cited as saying.

The suspects also planned an attack against Jewish and Christian targets, including a bus station in Nazareth, a police station, as well as a local park.

They were inspired by other IS attacks in Israel, including in Beersheba, Hadera and Jerusalem earlier this year.

They would-be attackers obtained weapons and were seeking to recruit more people to the cell.

The six were charged on Sunday with crimes of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, planning an act of terror and membership in a terrorist organization.

“The Shin Bet and Israel Police will continue to do everything in their power and use all measures at their disposal to deal with matters related to radical Islamic ideologies, and preemptively eliminate intentions to harm the security of the State of Israel,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.