Arab Israeli youths indicted for allegedly making pipe bombs, targeting police

Seven youths from town of Fureidis, near Zichron Yaakov, arrested for allegedly intending to harm police officers for nationalistic reasons after police shooting of Arab man in North.

By BEN HARTMAN
Pipe bomb confiscated from Fureidis youths suspected of targeting police‏ (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Pipe bomb confiscated from Fureidis youths suspected of targeting police‏
(photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Six Israeli-Arab minors from Fureidis, a village of just north of Zichron Ya’acov, were indicted in Haifa Juvenile Court on Sunday for making pipe bombs and throwing them at police during violent protests in the town last month, the Justice Ministry announced.
The youths were arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Israel Police last month and were indicted for two separate incidents. All face charges including conspiracy, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and weapons charges.
The indictments are tied to violent protests in the town and across the Arab sector that broke out on November 9 and 10, following the killing of Kheir a-Din Hamdan by police in Kafr Kana two days earlier.
According to the indictment, in the first incident on November 9, three of the teens took a pipe bomb and made their way to entrance of the village where police were patrolling next to Route 4. They then lit the fuse and threw the bomb at police.
Though the explosive landed only a few meters away, it did not detonate, the indictment reads.
The Shin Bet said on Sunday the three suspects admitted to carrying out the attack for “nationalist reasons.”
The second occurrence involves a local 15-year-old who police said learned how to make pipe bombs during a visit to a refugee camp in the northern West Bank in August. He attended a protest march in the town on November 10, carrying with him several pipe bombs that he made.
During the course of the protest, the teen made his way down to Route 4 to find police to use a bomb against, the indictment said, adding that when he failed to find any targets, he detonated the explosive on the side of the road.
The teen is suspected of supplying bombs he made to two other youths who conspired to use them on police and who were also indicted on Sunday.
The killing of Hamdan sparked protests across the Arab sector, which spread after surveillance camera footage of the incident showed the 22-year-old man banging on the door of a police van after officers came to arrest a local man. In the video, Hamdan can be seen turning and walking away, subsequently an officer steps out of the car and fires a shot. Hamdan was badly wounded by the bullet, and died of his wounds in hospital that night.