Prosecutors on Sunday indicted three young Arabs from the northern city of Nazareth for allegedly trying to make bombs and acquire weapons for attacks on Jews, Israeli media said.
The Jerusalem Post's website said Ahmed Ghanem and Moataz Shatawi, both 19, and Nour el-Din Shahade, 18, were charged in Nazareth district court of conspiring to commit a crime and arms offences, including plans to make an improvised pipe bomb.
Ynet, a news website, said the men intended to launch a militant group to be called "Death to Zionism" and sought to buy assault rifles from Palestinians in the West Bank. But the deals never went ahead "presumably because the weapons in question were too expensive," Ynet said.
"The suspects attempted to assemble the makeshift pipe bomb from two hollow tubes, 50 matchboxes, screws, nails and glue," according to the Post. Israel's Arab citizens, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, are Palestinians whose ancestors remained in the Jewish state following the 1948 establishment of the Jewish state. Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel.
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