Three Arabs who were seeking to attack Jewish families in Yafo (Jaffa) and instead threw a firebomb through the window of the home of an Arab family were arrested by Israeli forces, the police announced Wednesday.
The police and the Shin Bet security service cracked the case of the attack in the Ajami neighborhood of Yafo and arrested three local residents on suspicion of carrying out the attack, planning of other attacks, and illegal possession of weapons.
The Shin Bet and the central unit of the Israel Police in the Tel Aviv district conducted an investigation for about a month, upon receiving the report on May 14 of a suspected nationalist incident, in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at several Jewish houses in the neighborhood, and apparently accidentally at another house Arab in a case of misidentification on the part of the terror cell.
A 12-year-old Arab boy, a member of the Jentasi family, was severely injured in the attack. His 10-year-old sister was lightly injured.
These attacks were part of countrywide riots by Arabs against Jews in tandem with Hamas rockets attacks on Israel and the IDF’s Operation Guardian of the Walls in the Gaza Strip.
The attack was initially blamed on Jews.
The Shin Bet investigation revealed that the three suspects planned in advance to throw Molotov cocktails at Jewish homes in the Ajami neighborhood of Yaffo out of a nationalist motive, following the riots in Lod and the violent events on the Temple Mount.
After the suspects realized their mistake in attacking the Arab home, they fled the scene, even though they planned to throw Molotov cocktails at other homes of Jews in the area.
In addition, as part of the investigation, a number of weapons were seized from some of the suspects which were hidden in various places in the neighborhood in Yafo.
In the coming days, the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office will file serious indictments against the three.
The Shin Bet and the Israel Police “will continue to act in order to enforce the law severely in the face of any incident of assault and violence on a nationalist background,” they stated.