Palestinian rioters use slings to hurl stones at Israeli troops during a protest in the village of Ras Karkar, near Ramallah in the West Bank. Aug. 31, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.

JNS.org – Three Palestinian residents of the West Bank were indicted Wednesday for conspiring to ‎carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis, Channel 10 ‎News reported.

Quoting a statement by the Shin Bet security agency, ‎the report said that Issa Shalalda, 21, ‎and Amar Masud, 20, both students at the ‎Birzeit University near Ramallah, and Hazem ‎Hamail, 24, had contacted ‎Hamas officials on Facebook with the aim of raising ‎funds to stage terrorist attacks ‎against Israeli civilians and soldiers in Judea and Samaria.‎

Shalalda and Masud were indicted on suspicion of ‎membership in a terrorist organization and ‎contacting a terror operative. Hamail‎ faces charges ‎‎of contacting an enemy agent. ‎

The three were recruited by Hamas’ terror operatives ‎in the West Bank, the report said.‎

‎”Since 2015, senior operatives with Hamas’ military ‎wing in Gaza have established and maintained secret ‎infrastructure in Judea and Samaria with the purpose ‎of recruiting operatives in Judea and Samaria and ‎Israel and carrying out terrorist attacks against ‎Israeli targets,” the Shin Bet said in a statement. ‎‎”Special efforts were invested in recruiting ‎Palestinian engineering and technology students who ‎served as engineers and manufactured explosive ‎devices.”‎

The Shin Bet said Shalalda and Masud‎ admitted ‎to engaging with Hamas military wing operatives on ‎social media and further implicated themselves by detailing the ‎nature of the training they received. ‎

Hamail‎’s interrogation revealed that he was in ‎contact with a Hamas operative in Gaza who ‎maintained a fictitious Facebook profile. He was ‎scheduled to receive money and instructions to carry ‎out a terrorist attack but was apprehended before ‎their delivery, the report said. ‎