Police Raid Umm el-Fahm Mosque in Connection with Temple Mount Attack

Israel Police raided a mosque in Umm el-Fahm early Thursday morning as part of an investigation into the July 14 terror attack in which three men from the town killed two policemen in a terrorist attack in the Old City of Jerusalem. Also Thursday, the Haifa District Attorney filed an indictment against a local resident, 35-year-old Amjad Muhammad Jabarin for allegedly abetting the residents to murder policemen Camil Shanan and Ha’il Satawi at the Temple Mount.

In a statement, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police said Jabarin, who was arrested on July 23, met the terrorists before the attack and knew they were planning the attack but did nothing to prevent it from taking place. Jabarin was also accused of conspiring and assisting the terrorists by driving the armed terrorists to a drop-off point from where they set out to carry out the deadly attack in Jerusalem.

Police said that the terror cell formed at the el-Malsa’a mosque in Umm el-Fahm where one of the terrorists, 19-year-old Mohammed Hamed Abed Alatif Jabarin, worked as a cleaner at as well as serving as the mosque’s muezzin.

They also said there are links between the mosque and the banned Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Mohamed Ahmed Mafdal Jabarin, 19, is suspected of serving in the Murabitoun, a group of Muslims paid to sit outside al-Aqsa Mosque and harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. Like the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, the Murabitoun group was banned in 2015 for alleged ties to Hamas and activities that threatened state security in and around the Temple Mount.

Police added that Sheikh Raed Salah eulogized the three terrorists during the trio’s nighttime funeral leading to the latter’s arrest on charges of incitement.