Two ISIS supporters plotted massive gas-tank bombing near Israel’s parliament; judges impose harsh deterrent sentences.
The Jerusalem District Court handed down severe prison sentences Tuesday to two ISIS-aligned terrorists who plotted a devastating truck-bomb attack near the Knesset, aiming to cause mass casualties at the heart of Israel’s democracy.
Mustafa Abd al-Nabi, the ringleader, received 12 years in prison, while his accomplice Ahmad Natshe was sentenced to five years. Both also received suspended terms, and authorities seized the equipment they used to manufacture explosives.
According to the indictment, the pair were active supporters of Islamic State (ISIS), spending hours consuming violent jihadist propaganda and pledging allegiance to the terror group. Their plan was to load a truck with multiple gas tanks, convert it into a massive bomb, and detonate it near the Knesset in an attack intended to produce catastrophic destruction.
The terrorists were arrested in December 2023, just before they could operationalize the final stage of their plot. Investigators found that preparations were advanced, practical, and posed a real threat to countless Israeli lives.
Court: No remorse, ideological fanaticism, and high risk of repeat attacks
In their ruling, the judges emphasized several aggravating factors:
- The defendants displayed no remorse whatsoever,
- They showed complete inability to grasp the scale and horror of their planned actions,
- Probation authorities assessed a high risk of future terror activity,
- The plot was driven by clear extremist ideology,
- And it was devised in the midst of Israel’s wartime environment, compounding its severity.
The court stressed that even though the bombing was prevented, the terror cell had moved deep into the operational phase, and only swift Israeli intelligence work prevented a national tragedy.
The judges concluded that the sentences must send a strong deterrent message against ISIS-inspired radicals and Palestinian extremists seeking to exploit the wartime climate to carry out mass-casualty attacks inside Israel.
