The scene of a 2015 attack on an Egged bus in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. Photo: Israel Police.

JNS.org – A 22-year-old resident of Shuafat in eastern Jerusalem has been arrested and indicted for planning a suicide bombing in the Israeli capital, security officials announced Tuesday.

Muhammad Fauaz Ibrahim Joulani was arrested early last month by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency. He was only days away from carrying out his plan to detonate himself on a bus in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood. His parents were reportedly aware of his activities, as was the terror group Hamas, whose operatives in the Gaza Strip he was in touch with via the internet. The terror organization funded Joulani through a grant of $1,840 dollars delivered through a Hebron resident.

Such an operation would be “the way of God,” Joulani said, according to the indictment.

“This investigation reiterates and highlights the unrelenting effort by Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip to instigate severe terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank,” the Shin Bet said in a statement reported by Israeli media.

News of Joulani’s arrest came hours before the commencement of the Yom Kippur holiday, which is being marked by an increased police presence across the country due to a shooting attack in the capital that killed two on Sunday.

The terrorist in that incident, identified as Musbah Abu Sbeih, was a 39-year-old Jerusalem resident due to begin a four-month jail term for incitement, but instead went on a shooting rampage.

Abu Sbeih was shot and killed by Jerusalem police.