Overview
- The State Attorney's Office filed an indictment in Jerusalem District Court on Thursday charging 22-year-old Mohammad Shalabi with preparing a terrorist act constituting murder and receiving terrorist training.
- Prosecutors identify Shalabi as a third-year pharmacy student and pharmacist's assistant from Beit Hanina who they say radicalized after the October 7, 2023 attacks and joined extremist Telegram groups.
- The indictment says an early 2025 plot to place an explosive near a mosque was abandoned and that Shalabi later sought to carry out a larger attack and wrote that he wanted to kill “lots of Jews.”
- Authorities allege he bought chemicals in Ramallah in split transactions, stored materials at home, conducted a bathroom experiment that ignited, and deleted files and search history to conceal his work.
- Prosecutors have asked the court to hold Shalabi in custody until trial and the case adds to a string of recent Israeli indictments accusing suspects of preparing mass attacks and misusing professional access to weapons or chemicals.