The three arrested individuals had formed a terrorist cell with the goal of murdering the minister and his son, according to Israeli police and the security service Shin Bet on Thursday. According to Israeli sources, one of them had also sought support from the terrorist-stamped Hamas and the Iran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah.
One of the alternatives was to stage a terrorist attack and then kill Ben-Gvir when he arrived at the scene, writes Haaretz. According to the newspaper, charges have now been brought against the arrested individuals in a military court.
This is not the first time a murder plot against Ben-Gvir has been revealed. In connection with arrests in Hebron on the Israeli-occupied West Bank – where Ben-Gvir lives in a settlement – last week, Shin Bet stated that it was the fifth time they had saved the minister's life.
Ben-Gvir is one of the most extreme right-wing elements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's diverse government. He advocates, among other things, for the colonization of the Gaza Strip and expanded Israeli settlements on the West Bank. He began his political career in the Israel-terror-stamped anti-Arab party Kahane Chai, and was already convicted during his student days for inciting racism and supporting terrorism.
Ben-Gvir had previously had a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler who in 1994 shot and killed 29 Palestinians in a mosque in Hebron, hanging in his living room.
