Occupied Palestine (QNN)- An Israeli professor has been indicted over a plan to kill hundreds of Palestinians, “targeting women and children” in an effort to force them from their homes, according to Israeli media reports. He planned to form 12 cells to carry out the coordinated attacks.
Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, in his 60s, was accused of developing a detailed plan for simultaneous attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Palestinians living in their own lands in the Israeli-occupied territories, according to an indictment filed by prosecutors.
His name is under a court-imposed gag order.
Prosecutors say that he planned to recruit 72 Israeli attackers, including himself, and divide them into 12 cells of six people.
The groups would have been armed with firearms, axes, and hammers and would have launched coordinated attacks designed to cause mass casualties and spread fear, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say the objective was to cause Palestinians to flee or be permanently expelled towards Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip.
The lecturer called his plan “AIT,” an acronym for the Hebrew phrase “the nation will carry out transfer.”
According to the indictment, he began developing the plan in February 2023 and intensified his efforts after the start of the Gaza genocide on 7 October 2023.
He conducted reconnaissance around the Bedouin community of Tuba-Zangariyye in northern Israel, examining possible routes into the community.
He also spent more than a year trying to recruit people to participate in the attacks, but prosecutors said none agreed.
The lecturer is further accused of attempting to recruit far-right politician Moshe Feiglin, leader of the Zehut party, to help him find participants.
When Feiglin did not respond, prosecutors say that the lecturer attempted to blackmail him, sending threatening letters and warning that he would publish them to damage the politician’s reputation.
Feiglin and members of his party reported the threats to police, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors have asked the court to keep him in custody until the conclusion of legal proceedings, saying that his ideology and the detailed nature of his preparations demonstrate that he poses an immediate danger.
The professor has asked to be released to house arrest. However, during a court hearing, the lecturer claimed that he was not currently a danger to anyone and sought permission to return home.
“I have exams to grade,” he told the court, according to Ynet.
Standing before the court, he also explained: "All the prison guards are Muslim, and I'm afraid. I'm a professor at Bar-Ilan University, and I worked until my arrest. I did nothing for myself. I buried my life for three years." He wanted to serve his detention at home. The court was considering his request.
There has been a sharp increase in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, often carried out with the backing of Israeli forces and the occupation government against Palestinians, their lands, and property in villages and towns across the occupied West Bank, with the purpose of forcing Palestinians out of their homes and lands.
This includes Israeli settler attacks, backed by the army and government, including assaults, arson, property destruction, and attacks on farmland and livestock.
More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 2023.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1,600 settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both were recorded between the beginning of January and 14 September.
Earlier this year, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory described the escalation in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians as unprecedented and sustained.
The commission said the Israeli occupation government supports the attacks through financial backing, logistical assistance, and military protection.
“To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military”, Peace Now said.
“No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this,” said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOs working to support Palestinian communities against displacement.
More than 2,300 Palestinians had been displaced in 2026 as a result of settler attacks and related access restrictions, according to OCHA.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem across roughly 300 settlements and outposts. The settlements are regarded as illegal under international law, according to the International Court of Justice.
Human rights groups say the Israeli occupation has allowed the settlers to operate with total impunity in their attacks against Palestinians. Israeli organization B’Tselem has accused Israel of actively aiding the settlers’ violence “as part of a strategy to cement the takeover of Palestinian land.”
The UN also warned last year that settler attacks were being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces.”
