The Israel Police arrested a man from Ramla on Sunday morning suspected of threatening to carry out an imminent terrorist attack in the central city.

The suspect, a man in his 20s, allegedly posted online threats declaring his intent to commit an attack in Ramla, which is located around 12 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, near Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Officers tracked down his location to arrest him, according to the police statement. During the arrest, the man ordered his dog to attack one of the officers. Fearing for his life, one officer opened fire at the animal.

The suspect was detained, along with a second individual accused of assaulting officers during the arrest. Authorities plan to bring them before a court to request an extension of their detention, police said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

Since the outbreak of the war against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, security agencies have warned of a worrying trend of Israeli Arab involvement in terrorism.

A poll conducted in 2023 by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions found that one third of Arab citizens disagreed with the statement that Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre “does not reflect Arab society, the Palestinian people and the Islamic nation.”

A June 2024 survey found that around 14.7% of Arab Israelis believe that Hamas should govern Gaza after the war. That represents approximately 308,700 Israeli citizens out of an Arab population of around 2.1 million.

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