A planned bombing attack at a bus station in Akko, targeting IDF soldiers, was foiled in recent weeks, a joint statement from the Shin Bet and Israel Police revealed on Tuesday.

Security forces arrested Issa Madi, an 18-year-old Israeli-Arab from Akko who identified with ISIS and maintained contact with the terror group’s operatives abroad.

During his interrogation, Madi admitted he intended to bomb a bus station near Akko’s train station, and had already begun preparing explosives.

He planned to carry out the attack in the name of ISIS and for nationalist motives.

The Shin Bet noted that since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the threat posed by ISIS and its supporters in Israel has significantly increased, including greater involvement of Israeli-Arabs in terror activity.

The Haifa District Attorney’s Office is expected to file an indictment against Madi on Tuesday.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)