16-Mar-20: Israeli Arab mother is arrested; allegedly posed as welfare worker while serving Hamas

Protestors demanding the suspect's release [Image Source]

A news report published yesterday ["Shin Bet says it nabbed Arab Israeli Hamas agent who posed as aid worker", Jacob Magid in Times of Israel, March 15, 2020] raises the case of an Israeli Arab woman in her early thirties now facing serious criminal and terrorism charges.

A resident of the Israeli town of Ar’ara and a mother of two young children, the woman was arrested last month. Ar'ara is a town in the Wadi Ara region of northern Israel, south of Umm al-Fahm and just north-west of the Green Line. Israelis know the area, inhabited mainly by Arabs, as "the Triangle". In 2018, Ar'ara's population was about 25,000.

The suspect's name and other details had remained confidential until yesterday (Sunday) and are now public. Described in parts of the Arab media (here for instance) as a "Palestinian holding Israeli citizenship", she is charged with offences connected with "scamming aid organizations she worked for as well as civilians who donated money to the needy population in Gaza" [Ynet].

Reports name the woman as Aya Khatib, 31. Ynet says she was arrested two months ago in "a special operation" and that she admitted under interogation to taking part in "terrorist activity against Israeli targets".

As reported by Times of Israel, the charges against her are based on the allegation that she was recruited by a pair of Hamas terrorists active in Hamas’ so-called “military” wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigade and that she used her position as a humanitarian worker to divert money and supplies intended for the needy in Gaza. Donors were  evidently told the funds were going to patients claimed to be suffering from cancer.

She is charged as well with providing field intelligence to the terrorists of Hamas including details about the movements of IDF forces during what the Shin Bet, which carried out the investigation leading to her apprehension, called "one of the fighting rounds with the Gaza Strip”.

This is said to be Aya Khatib

The Jerusalem Post names them as Muhammed Pilpel, 29 from Beit Lahiya, and Mahmoud Halua, 32, from Jabaliya. Other news reports give their names as Mohammed Filfel and Mahmoud Halawa.

Through the two Hamas men, according to Israel's Shin Bet, she is said to have transferred hundreds of thousands of shekels to the Hamas terrorists

“while scamming aid organizations and innocent civilians who donated funds with the aim of reaching patients and the needy”

in the Gaza Strip.

The Jerusalem Post report says an indictment is expected to be filed against Khatib in the Acre Magistrate’s Court in the next few days.

Acccording to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat news site ("the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities"):

On Sunday, the Haifa District Court extended Khatib’s detention period until next Wednesday, on charges of cooperation and intelligence with al-Qassam brigades. The Israeli Public Prosecution submitted Monday the prosecutor's statement to the court. Khatib's lawyer said she denies the charges attributed to her.
Khatib has complained about the conditions of her arrest before the court, which ordered that this matter be examined, her lawyer noted. The court also allowed her two children to meet her.
Khatib has been active on her Facebook page to collect donations for patients, particularly children from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are receiving treatments in Israeli hospitals. She also collected donations for male and female university students whose economic conditions prevented them from paying their university fees.

It's a news item worth keeping in mind the next time demands are made - as they are regularly and often - for Israel to free Palestinian Arab female prisoners.

24-Jul-17: Stabbing for Al-Aqsa again

The kosher shawarma stand where today's stabbing "for
Al Aqsa" happened [Image Source]

There has been an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack today (Monday) in Petach Tikvah.

According to Ynet, the Arab attacker stabbed his victim, an Israeli Arab of 32 who is a driver for Egged, the national bus co-operative, at a spot close to a shawarma (grilled lamb meat) stand near the busy Petach Tikva Central Bus Station, injuring him moderately-to-severely.

According to Times of Israel

The assailant then tried to escape on foot, but was wrestled to the ground by civilian bystanders and handed over to police. Some reports said a driver who was passing by helped stop the attacker by ramming him with his car as he tried to escape. Others said a local pizzeria worker helped subdue him by hitting him with a wooden pizza tray. The assailant, a 21-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, was arrested and taken for questioning by police. Police spokesman Luba Samri said Monday’s attack was nationalist in nature. She said the attacker was a Palestinian working illegally in Israel.

Ynet says the victim was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in nearby Rabin Medical Center with injuries to upper body including stabbing injuries to the neck. This, it has to be noted, is where Palestinian Arab stabbers are taught to aim when carrying out Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks.

In Ynet's telling, the stabber told police he "did it for Al-Aqsa." He has a criminal/terror record, having been imprisoned in 2015 – 2016 for "a nationalistically motivated attack" on Israelis.

We're witnessing a great deal of evil being done "for Al-Aqsa" at the moment.