EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian minors indicted for attempted IDF courthouse suicide bombing

The indictments state as follows: the two minors met on September 21 and decided to carry out a terror attack against high ranking IDF personnel as revenge for Palestinians killed by the IDF.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
IDF soldier handcuffs a man (photo credit: REUTERS)
IDF soldier handcuffs a man
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Two Palestinian minors were recently indicted for trying to carry out a suicide bombing on the Salem Military Courthouse in Samaria on September 22, in order to murder judges, prosecutors and others inside, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Although the indictment was filed last week, the Post’s report is the first disclosure of the plot that is sending ripples through the defense establishment in terms of the audacity of the plan and the young age of the would-be suicide bombers.
The two minors, “A.A.” and “B.B.,” residents of Nablus, intended to use seven explosive charges, while a third Palestinian, “C.C.,” whose name is also under gag order, helped with assembling the explosives, according to the indictment obtained by the Post.
It state as follows: The two minors met on September 21 and decided to carry out a terrorist attack against high-ranking IDF personnel as revenge for Palestinians killed by the army.
More specifically, they decided to target military judges and prosecutors at the Salem Courthouse, east of Nablus.
Using firecrackers and other improvised materials, the two minors put together seven explosive devices.
They arrived at the IDF’s Salem Base, where the court is located, around 4 p.m. on September 22, to find the main gate locked.
When the minors put the bag that contained the explosives on the ground, next to the gate, base guards became suspicious and apprehended them.
Next, security personnel detonated the bombs in a controlled fashion.
A.A was also indicted on eight other offenses, including assembling and selling explosives made of gasoline, hot carbon and other materials, assembling and selling guns, firing guns during illegal military training, throwing an explosive at an IDF jeep and possession of illegal weapons.
More specifically, A.A’s indictment states that in April, he assembled three improvised bombs and threw one of them at an IDF jeep, causing damage but no casualties.
He allegedly sold two other bombs for NIS 300.
In June, A.A. assembled two rifles that he used during military training, but eventually sold for NIS 8,000, according to the indictment.
On September 16, he threw rocks at both civilians and IDF troops near Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, it said.
Although there have been other noteworthy crimes or alleged crimes by Palestinian minors in recent years, this alleged suicide bombing attempt may represent a new level of threat.
In February, the IDF’s chief prosecutor for Judea and Samaria, Lt.-Col. Maurice Hirsch, told the Post that 82 percent of the incidents in 2013 involving minors were “violent in nature” and that there were “a large number of minors involved in terrorist incidents.”
Asked for clarification, he said that the 82 percent included terrorist acts, such as the November 2013 murder of 18-year-old Eden Atias in Afula, numerous cases of attempted murder, shootings, possession of illegal weapons, membership in terrorist organizations, throwing Molotov cocktails and the range of stone-throwing offenses.
Another recent noteworthy indictment of minors involved Palestinian rock-throwers who caused a car crash on Route 5, near Ariel, that seriously wounded toddler Edel Biton and moderately wounded her two sisters and mother in March 2013.