Rabat – Jewish community centers in the US and elsewhere may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Police in Israel have arrested an Israeli teenager on suspicion of making repeated threats to Jewish community centers in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the threats were made over the course of the past few months. The arrest occurred Thursday. The young man is a 19-year-old teenager from the south of Israel. Its been reported that the suspect holds dual Israeli/US citizenship. His name is not being released.
Reuters reports police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, saying “We believe he is responsible for the wave of calls, bomb threats, made to Jewish community centers in the United States.” He added that the suspect’s home had been searched on Thursday.
There police found equipment which made it possible for the youth to have masked his identity when making the threats. According to Rosenfeld, “He didn’t use regular phone lines. He used different computer systems so he couldn’t be backtracked.”
Rosenfeld described the youth as a “hacker,” in a report by the Associated Press (A/P). He stated that at one point, the youth had been judged unfit for duty in the Israeli military’s compulsory service. He also revealed that in February 2015, the same suspect threatened a Delta Airways flight, causing the plane to make an emergency landing.
The arrest came about as the result of a coordinated investigation of Israeli intelligence and the FBI.
