Three Israeli Arabs charged with joining ISIS, digging smuggling tunnel

An indictment filed on Thursday revealed that three Israeli Arabs were arrested by the country's security forces in September on suspicion of attempting to set up a terror cell of the Islamic State organization. The three residents of the town of Tayibe, aged 20, 26 and 32, face charges including digging an underground tunnel from the house of one of the suspects to smuggle explosives and weapons from Judea and Samaria; and attempting to cross the border into Syria using an improvised glider in order to join ISIS. Two of the suspects admitted under questioning that they swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The indictment was filed at a court in Lod along with a request to extend the arrests until the completion of the legal proceedings. The arrests were made by the Israel Police and the Shin Bet domestic security service.