An Israeli Arab man has been indicted for allegedly working as an agent of Hezbollah in a plot to assassinate Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, a gag order lifted on Monday revealed.
Tira resident Rawi Fuad Sultani, 23, was arrested by Shin Bet and Israel Police forces earlier this month, Haaretz reported.
According to the indictment presented at the Haifa District Court, Sultani first made contact with Hezbollah agents at a multi-national Arab summer camp organized by the Balad movement in Morocco.
Lebanese Hezbollah agent Salman Herev, who also took part in the camp, spent much of the summer lecturing the Israeli Arab participants on his group's struggle.
Herev allegedly recruited Sultani after the latter informed him that he and the IDF chief worked out at the same Kfar Sava gym.
Sultani is the son of a well-known Tira lawyer and member of the Israeli Arab Balad movement.
Israeli intelligence sources believe that Hezbollah chose the IDF chief as a target to avenge the death of slain militant leader Imad Mughniyeh, believed to have been assassinated by Israel.
In March, another Israeli Arab citizen suspected of being a prospective Hezbollah spy was indicted on charges of contact with a foreign agent.
Ismail Saleiman, a 27-year-old man from the Jezreel Valley town of Hajajra, was suspected of being in contact with a Hezbollah operative and planning to spy on Israel for the terror group.
Last May, a shadowy group calling itself the "Galilee Freedom Fighters" claimed that seven Israeli Arabs arrested on terrorism charges were its operatives. The detainees, two of whom are minors, are suspected of planning terror attacks and attempting to kidnap Israel Defense Forces soldiers
In recent years, Israeli Arabs and Israeli identity card-carrying Palestinians in East Jerusalem have become increasingly involved in terrorist acts against various targets in the country.
Over the course of the last five years, there have been at least six documented instances of attacks committed by Israeli Arabs or East Jerusalem residents.
Some of these attacks were claimed by the Galilee Freedom Fighters, although most of the assailants acted on their own volition and were not assisted by any organizational structure.
Officials in the security establishment believe most of the attacks were perpetrated by lone assailants, a fact which made it more difficult for the police and the army to gain information that would enable them to preemptively thwart the attack.
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