Several Arab Israelis have been arrested or charged in recent days on suspicion of having collaborated with West Bank terror groups planning to carry out attacks inside Israel.
On Thursday, state prosecutors filed an indictment against six men on suspicion that they helped transfer funds from Turkey to Palestinian terror groups in the West Bank.
Police and Shin Bet agents arrested the suspects over the past month, and the six were all indicted on charges of contact with a foreign agent and using terrorist assets.
A joint statement from the two agencies asserted that the suspects funneled millions of shekels from Turkey to various groups, including Hamas in the West Bank.
According to the statement, police suspect that 33-year-old Arraba resident Fadi Arabi recruited the five other suspects into the elaborate funding scheme, which initially began between him and his brother, Nassim Arabi, who resides in Turkey.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been vocal in denouncing Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza last year and has consistently expressed support for Hamas, with which Ankara has longstanding ties.
A suicide bombing attempt in Tel Aviv last August was said to have been planned and carried out under the supervision of Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey.
Separately, on Friday, the Israel Police said it had arrested two Galilee residents for planning attacks in coordination with the Tulkarem Brigades terror group, based out of the West Bank city of the same name.
The two men, named by police as Nur Shabaat, a resident of the town of Nahf, and Amir Kaywan, from the nearby Deir al-Assad, were arrested in March.
Police said that during interrogation, it was found that Shabaat made contact with the Tulkarem Brigades to participate in their operations, as well as those of other West Bank terror groups.
Shabaat then asked Kaywan for assistance with the plans, including asking him on several occasions to carry out stabbing attacks against security forces on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel has been carrying out an extended counterterrorism operation dubbed Operation Iron Wall in the northern West Bank since January 21, an operation initiated days after a ceasefire agreement came into effect in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The operation began in the terror hotbed of Jenin, before expanding to nearby towns including Tulkarem, Far’a and Nur Shams. In recent days, the IDF said it expanded the operation to the Nablus area as well.
Police have carried out several arrests in recent months of Israeli citizens found to be planning terror attacks or collaborating with terror groups.
In late March, a 17-year-old from the coastal Arab town of Jisr az-Zarqa was arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack in Israel on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
According to law enforcement, the youth swore allegiance to ISIS several times in recent months and had been plotting an attack in north-central Israel. Security forces said they also discovered documents related to manufacturing explosives in his possession.
Earlier that same month, police arrested a 21-year-old Kamel Nashef, from Taybeh, who was accused of having sworn allegiance to ISIS.
He was also accused of tipping off terror operatives in the West Bank city of Tulkarem by sending them photos of Israeli troops on their way during counterterror operations.
Since the war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 900 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 51 people, including Israeli security personnel, were killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.