JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Arab-Israeli crime mob planned to bomb a mosque in Jaffa and pass it off as an attack by right-wing settlers, Tel Aviv Police discovered.
At least eight people have been under arrest for the last month in the case, from which a gag order was lifted Tuesday, according to reports.
Indictments against the suspects, including several members of one Jaffa family, are expected to be made in Tel Aviv District Court later this week.
The plan to bomb the Hassan Bek Mosque in Jaffa and the car of its sheik was thwarted just hours before it was set to occur, Ynet reported. Police uncovered a powerful bomb that was set to planted in the building during a raid on a home in Jaffa last month.
Another plan included targeting a new Scientology center in Jaffa.
The would-be bombers had planned to spray-paint the words "price tag" in the neighborhood to make the attack look like the work of rightists. "Price tag" refers to the strategy extremist settlers have adopted to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians in retribution for settlement freezes or their attacks on Jews.
The bombing was to have occurred shortly after five members of the Fogel family were killed in their home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar in mid-March.
