The 17-year-old Nazareth resident was indicted Sunday for planning to carry out a suicide bombing, conspiring to commit a crime and contact with a foreign agent.
He planned to blow up the packed lobby or dining room of Upper Nazareth’s Plaza Hotel. He said he chose the location due to its popularity with Israeli Jews and its light security.
Israeli intelligence caught the young man expressing interest in carrying out a suicide bombing on two occasions using surveillance equipment. Set to receive his explosive belt from Fatah’s Al Aksa Brigades, he was arrested two days prior to the specified time.
The Israeli-Arab, whose father is a citizen of the PA, said he had been taunted by Islamic Jihad and Hamas men whenever he visited PA-controlled areas and wanted to prove to them once and for all that he was loyal to the Palestinian cause.
On March 27, 2002, the first night of Passover, 30 people were murdered at a group Seder in Netanya's Park Hotel by a Palestinian terrorist suicide bomber. Among the dead were six husband-and-wife couples.
On Monday, another Palestinian terrorist was indicted in Haifa on charges of murdering Dina Gueta in April 2001. The accused murderer, from a village just north of Jenin, allegedly committed the crime as an "acceptance test" for a terrorist organization conected with Hizbullah elements in Jordan. The murder was originally thought to be of a criminal, not terrorist, nature.
Kassam Rain Continues
In other security news, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza continue to fire Kassam rockets at Israel. One rocket landed this afternoon (Monday) in the orchards of a western Negev community, another landed near Netiv HaAsarah north of Gaza on Sunday, and two more were fired on Friday towards Sderot.