MESOP NEWS : Israel arrests pro-ISIS Palestinians

January 5, 2015 – ARA News – Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan – On Sunday, Israeli forces reportedly arrested three Palestinians accused of links with the Islamic State radical group (IS/ISIS) in the West Bank.

According to reports, this is considered the first uncovered Palestinian cell affiliated with the IS insurgent group. The Shin Bet internal security service said in a statement on Sunday that the three men, all in their early 20s and from Hebron, “were arrested in November and told interrogators they planned to attack Israeli soldiers and a Jewish settler”. The Shin Bet’s statement described the three as “identifying with the Islamic State group”. An official in the Shin Bet internal security service said that this was an unprecedented case in Israel “in which Palestinians planned attacks in the name of Islamic State”. The three detainees are to be tried in Israeli military courts, Reuters reported. Reporting by: Eyaz Ciziri