Two Israeli Arabs were indicted on Friday for planning to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hazam Sanduka, 22, an Arab resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, and Fahdi Abu Kia’an,19, an Israeli Bedouin from the Negev, were arrested last month as part of a Hamas cell and charged with assisting an enemy at wartime, contact with a foreign agent, plotting a terrorist attack and manufacturing explosives. Prosecutor Anat Greenbaum wrote in the indictment that they had helped Hamas operative Ahmad Jamal Mousa Azzam.
Azzam, a resident of Qalqilya in Samaria, rented an apartment in the Abu Dis neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Azzam and Sanduka acquired ingredients to make explosives and planned on carrying out several attacks.
Sanduka, who had worked in a security firm in the past, initiated the plan to plant explosives under the stage in Jerusalem’s Payis Arena where Netanyahu was scheduled to speak.
They also planned a large attack in Jerusalem for earlier this month. The plans were directed by Hamas in Gaza and the two men were in constant contact with the terror organization.
Kia’an was identified as a supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS) and planned on transporting weapons from Judea and Samaria to the interior of Israel in order to carry out attacks against Israelis. He had also agreed to carry out a mass suicide attack by driving a car loaded with explosives.
25 suspects were arrested last month as part of the investigation. Most were students in Abu Dis University