Five east Jerusalem men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) were arrested over the weekend, a police spokesperson said on Sunday.
The suspects were arrested and taken for questioning before being brought to a court hearing over the weekend. At the request of the police, their detention was extended until Monday.
"We take any act of incitement, threats, support for terrorist organizations or identification with them seriously. We will continue to take action against these criminals and offenders in order to bring them to justice," The Israeli Police stated.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in Hadera last month, in which two Border Police officers, Yezen Falah and Shirel Abukarat, were killed. The attackers arrived at the scene with 1,100 bullets, at least three handguns and six knives. They were killed by security forces.
During the height of the Islamic State’s power, close to 100 Israelis joined the terror group and several Israeli Arabs were arrested by the Shin Bet and Israel Police for seeking to join the group.
Several who joined the group were killed and a small number are believed to have returned to Israel, either of their own accord or after being caught by Turkish authorities while trying to cross the border and were deported back to Israel.
According to reports, the majority of those imprisoned for supporting the terror group have been released from prison and, like the attacker in Beersheba, they were not tracked by police.
In October 2015 authorities broke up the first known case of an ISIS plot in Israel and indicted seven Israeli Arabs on charges of belonging to an Islamic State cell planning to attack military targets.
The first deadly attack believed to have been inspired by the jihadist group was in January 2016 when an Israeli Arab went on a shooting spree in Tel Aviv killing three people. Six months later two Palestinians shot dead four Israelis in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market.
Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.