American indicted in Israel in alleged plot to attack Muslim sites

Reporting from Jerusalem —  Israel indicted an American citizen on charges of planning terrorist attacks against Muslim holy sites in the country, police said Tuesday.

Israeli authorities identified the suspect as Adam Livix, 30, of Texas. He was arrested last month after a joint operation of police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, they said.

Livix, who was indicted Sunday, has been charged with possessing weapons, obstructing police work and being in Israel illegally.

He entered Israel on March 2013 on a tourist visa that expired the following September and had lived in various locations in Israel and the West Bank since then, police said.

According to the indictment made available Tuesday by the Justice Ministry, Livix obtained explosives, detonators and non-lethal grenades from another U.S. citizen he met this year. The person, identified in the indictment only as A.A., stole a block of plastic explosives from an army base while serving in the Israeli military sometime in 2013, according to authorities.

Around October of this year, according to the indictment, Livix suggested that A.A. share the apartment where he lived in the coastal city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. Livix asked him to obtain stun grenades he said he needed to defend himself against Arabs while working in Jerusalem. Documents submitted to the court said Livix held negative views of Arabs in Israel and told friends he planned to blow up sites holy to Muslims.

According to the incitement, A.A. stole from an undisclosed army base six non-lethal grenades as well as plastic explosives and detonators, with Livix paying him the equivalent of about $125 of an agreed upon $625. While A.A. was out of the country in October, Livix moved the weapons from the apartment and to an adjacent storage unit, showing them to friends on several occasions.

Livix allegedly sought to buy more explosives from another American citizen serving in the Israeli military, named in the indictment as B.B., who wound up unknowingly selling the munitions to a military police investigator in early November.

Two weeks later, police raided Livix’s apartment. Livix was injured when he jumped out a window of his seventh-floor apartment to a balcony one story down, authorities said. At least three pounds of explosives were found in the apartment’s storage, as well as detonators and six assorted non-lethal grenades.

Israeli police said the investigation was carried out in cooperation with American law enforcement authorities. Police said Livix impersonated a U.S. Navy SEAL but didn’t specify when or why.

The Justice Ministry asked to keep Livix in custody until the end of legal proceedings against him, saying his release would endanger the public and the trial.

Sobelman is a special correspondent.