Hezbollah ploy to recruit Israeli Arabs, Palestinians uncovered

Lilach Shoval,  Matti Tuchfeld
and Israel Hayom Staff

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Using social media, the Shiite terrorist group has been trying to recruit Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to form a terrorist network against Israel, says Shin Bet security agency • Israeli ambassador urges U.N. to label Hezbollah a terror organization

Several attempts by Hezbollah agents living in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to use social media to recruit Palestinians in Judea and Samaria to form a terrorist network in Israel have been thwarted, the Shin Bet security agency revealed Tuesday. The plot was foiled through the joint efforts of the Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Israel Police, the agency said.

According to the Shin Bet, Hezbollah agents also made contact with Israeli Arabs in efforts to recruit them. Most of the recruitment efforts were made on Facebook.

One of the terrorist cells uncovered by the Shin Bet was active in the Qalqilya area in Judea and Samaria, just over the Green Line from Kfar Saba. The cell’s leader was named as Mustafa Kamal Hindi, 18, a Qalqilya resident who was recruited by Hezbollah in 2015 via a Facebook page titled “Palestine the Free,” which contains anti-Israel and pro-jihadist content.
After his arrest in June, Hindi told investigators he had been in contact with a Hezbollah operative known only as Bilal, first on Facebook and later through an email account he opened under Bilal’s orders. The two communicated using encrypted messages to avoid detection.

According to the Shin Bet, Hindi was instructed to form a terrorist cell in the Qalqilya area and carry out attacks against Israelis, including shooting attacks on IDF patrols in the area. Hindi recruited four other operatives, who prepared improvised bombs and gathered information on military patrols. The cell also underwent firearms and explosives training.

Soon after their arrest two months ago, all five cell members were indicted by a Judea and Samaria military court on a number of charges, including conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack.

Hezbollah had also made contact with several Israeli Arabs via Facebook, with the aim of recruiting them for terrorist purposes, the Shin Bet said.

The security agency said Tuesday that after learning of these efforts, its agents located the individuals involved, and they were made to sign legal documents stating that they understood that any continued contact with the Shiite terrorist group was a violation of the law.

This was not the first time Hezbollah tried to recruit Arabs inside Israel or in Judea and Samaria and Gaza.

In December 2015, after a Hezbollah cell from Tulkarm was discovered, the ringleader confessed that he had been recruited via the Facebook page of Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“In recent years, Hezbollah’s Unit 133 [responsible for the organization’s foreign operations] has been trying to establish a terrorist network in Israel, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, without success,” the Shin Bet said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“Hezbollah has recently prioritized instigating terrorist attacks, which it does from afar so to conceal its involvement. It is doing this, among other ways, by rousing incitement and inducing the Palestinian population to carry out terrorist attacks, in return for financial payments.”

Meanwhile, in response to Hezbollah’s recent recruitment efforts, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called on the international organization to formally recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

“The international community must condemn Hezbollah’s attempts to harm innocent Israeli civilians, and the Security Council must finally designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization,” Danon said in a statement.

“Hezbollah needs to know that any terrorist act against Israel will come at a very heavy price,” he said.

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