Kate Shuttleworth: Israel on hunt for acolytes of Isis

The historic old town of Hebron. FIle photo / NZ Herald

Palestinian families whose sons have been arrested insist the men are not members of feared Islamist group.

A Palestinian family of six sleep in one bedroom in a cramped, damp and mouldy three-room home. One teenage boy is asleep buried under blankets while on another single bed jammed against a wall a cat is giving birth to kittens.

In the adjoining kitchen-type foyer of the home which costs $1500 a year to rent there is no food in sight. The Shehadeh family in the historic old town of Hebron have been evicted by the landlord, given less than a month to move out and find a new home.

Mother Samar Shehadeh, 48, sits in shock, barefoot in the boxy living room with her feet resting near a tiny one-bar heater. Her 22-year-old son Ahmad was recently arrested by Israeli security forces on the belief he was a member of the first suspected Isis (Islamic State) militant cell in the occupied West Bank. Today she has just been told that her 29-year-old son with a severe disability had died in a home where he was being cared for. A group of women flock into the house to mourn together.

Ahmad was one of three Palestinian youths in Hebron taken from their family homes in November last year by Israeli security forces but only formally charged this year. Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, lifted a gag order last month on details of their arrests saying they believed the youths had drawn from the stream of Salafism that is devastating Iraq and Syria - Isis.

Ahmad allegedly contacted Isis militants through social networking sites, aiming to fight against the Assad regime in Syria. But it's alleged he instead intended to act in Hebron, which has a population of 200,000 and has a strong Palestinian resistance. Shin Bet said he planned to kidnap an Israeli soldier, kill him and use his weapon on other Israeli troops. He made his admissions under interrogation.

His mother is adamant her son is not Daesh (Isis). "We live in these conditions, we have no income and no money - to claim he's Isis? Where would he get the money to set up such a thing. Israeli allegations are all lies - our faith is against what they are claiming him to be."

She confirmed her son is a Salafi and that he had formed a friendship with another suspected cell member, Qussai Maswadeh, 23. "Two months before they were arrested they had a major fight and stopped talking to each other, nobody knows what the fight was about."

A year before Israel detained Ahmad, the Palestinian security forces did the same but eventually released him. Palestinian Authority spokesman Adnan Damiri said there was no armed Isis group in the occupied territories. He said Israel was suggesting there was to justify its occupation. He confirmed the PA had arrested individuals in Hebron who were accused of inciting violence and promoting extremism. He confirmed there are supporters of Isis in the West Bank and said the PA was monitoring them on social media.

To get to the Maswadeh household you have to cross through an Israeli checkpoint into Shuhada St, a famous road leading to the Cave of the Patriarchs, and once a thriving Palestinian marketplace. All the Palestinian shops were closed down in 1994 after a Jewish extremist carried out a bloody attack at the site killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and wounding another 125. From the historic home of the Maswadeh family you can see the desolate Shuhada St through wrought iron bars on the balcony where Qussai Maswadeh used to sleep. Israeli soldiers stand at checkpoints and posts protecting about 500 settlers.

Ibrahim Maswadeh, 60, is stressed and tired over the arrest of his son. The father of six boys and three girls ran a bicycle repair shop for 35 years at the bottom of his building, but it shut down when he lost business after Shuhada St was closed. He said Qussai had moved to Jordan in 2009 to earn money to send home. With this money Ibrahim opened a new shop in downtown Hebron.

He defended his son, who was a conservatively-clothed Muslim, saying he had no affiliation with Isis. "He's a quiet person who prays. When my son came back from Jordan he started talking to Ahmad Shehadeh and they went to the mosque together, they are the same age and from the same neighbourhood." He said he did not believe his son was recruiting.

Down the road at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is soon due to visit. He will try to secure the right-wing vote in the Jewish settlement enclaves. Netanyahu and his party Likud have pulled the emotive issue of Isis into the upcoming Israeli election by releasing a video telling voters that if they vote for Labour, Isis will take over Jerusalem.

The Governor of Hebron, Kamel Hmeid, argues that the real support base of Isis lies within Israel, where he said backing was larger than in the West Bank. So far Israel has identified 40 Arabs in Israel who have gone to fight with Isis, a tiny proportion of the overall Arab population of 1.7 million. "We don't have any individuals in Hebron who are affiliated with Daesh. The cell that Israelis talk about is a Salafi group - when they were asked about their affiliation they said 'we support Isis but we are not members'."

Hmeid believed support for Isis locally had almost come to a standstill after Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh was burnt alive by the group. "We opened a mourning tent here and we went to Jordan to show our condolences. The majority of people here are Muslims and they show support for the title Islamic State, but until now they haven't really understood what the group stood for."

In Israel last year Ahmed Shurbaji, 23, from Israeli city Um al-Fahm was sentenced to 22 months in prison on charges of illegal infiltration and participating in illegal military training with Isis. He was smuggled into Syria via Turkey. He left at the beginning of 2014 and contacted an Israeli security official to tell him that he'd made a mistake by joining the group and wanted to return. He was arrested on his arrival home.