An Palestinian young man suspected of planning to assassinate Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat last year on orders from a Syria-based group was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in an Israeli prison.
Muhammad Jamal Rushdi a 31-year-old Palestinian from occupied Jerusalem was arrested on April 24 and charged on May 27 with alleged terror offenses. In a plea deal he was convicted of conspiracy to aid the enemy in wartime preparing to carry out deadly terror attacks spying and conspiracy to commit murder.
“Working on orders from terrorist operatives abroad Muhammad planned to carry out a number of significant attacks against a variety of targets” Israel’s Shin Bet security service claimed.
The targets included Netanyahu and Barkat as well as buildings belonging to the US consulate in occupied Jerusalem (which has since been converted into an embassy) and a delegation of Canadian security officials who were in Jerusalem to train Palestinian Authority security forces in the occupied West Bank the Shin Bet said.
A Shin Bet spokesperson said Rushdi received his orders from members a Syria-based group that fights alongside Bashar al-Assad.
In order to carry out the attacks Rushdi and his accomplices planned to bring in an additional operative from Jordan the Shin Bet added.
According to the security service Rushdi had already begun collecting intelligence data about his targets.
