Israel charges seven suspected of setting up Global Jihad cell

Jun 28, 2010, 14:49 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli police on Monday confirmed the arrest of seven Arab-Israelis accused of murdering a taxi driver and carrying out attacks on Christians and Jews.

The gag order on the case was lifted when the men were indicted in a Haifa District Court Monday.

The seven are alleged to have intended to operate in Israel on behalf of Global Jihad, a militant Islamist group, police said.

They said the seven, who hail from Nazareth in northern Israel and range in age from 19 to 26, formed a group two years ago inspired by and affiliated with al-Qaeda and Global Jihad.

'This is one of the most dangerous cells we have uncovered,' police official Avi Elgrisi told the Jerusalem Post daily. 'They accessed the internet for jihadi ideology and indoctrination, and used it as an information source to listen to extremist clerics.'

The group are accused of carrying out attacks on Christians and Jews, and planning to kidnap an Israeli soldier.

Three of its members are also accused of murdering a taxi driver last year, whom they lured to a kibbutz near Nazareth and shot dead.

Two of the group reportedly also tried to get to an al-Qaeda training camp in Somalia, to join in fighting against Christian 'heretics.'

Others of the group are believed to have wanted to kidnap a Christian resident of Nazareth and behead him for 'insulting the Prophet Mohammed.'

Additional acts attributed to the group include throwing stun grenades and Molotov cocktails at Jewish- and Christian-owned businesses and homes in the town and burning Christian tour buses, media reports said.