American fugitive in Israel said to have weighed bombing Muslim holy sites

A U.S. citizen indicted in Israel on weapons charges has told investigators he had been weighing the possibility of attacking Muslim holy sites, the Israeli domestic security service Shin Bet said on Tuesday.

The man's lawyer told reporters that the Shin Bet was exaggerating the security implications of the case, which coincides with high tensions in Jerusalem over access to the holy site known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews.

The Shin Bet and the Justice Ministry identified the suspect as Adam Everett Livvix, 30, of Texas, and said he was wanted in the United States on drug charges.

Livvix, who was arrested on Nov. 19, was charged on Monday with conspiring with his roommate, an Israeli soldier, to steal 3 pounds of explosives from the military.

The Israeli authorities said an undercover police agent discovered the alleged plot and that ammunition and weapons material stolen from the army were found in Livvix's possession.

A gag order on details of the case, being heard in a court in the central Israeli city of Netanya, was lifted on Tuesday.

"Under questioning, Livvix admitted ... he had weighed various ideas about committing terrorist attacks at different venues and even gave preliminary thought to the possibility of attacking venues [of] Islamic holy places in Israel," the Shin Bet said, without identifying them. 

The Justice Ministry said the court has ordered Livvix to undergo a psychiatric examination prior to entering a plea.

Livvix's attorney Gal Wolf said Tuesday, "the accused has been denied his right to meet with a lawyer for eight days," Ha'aretz reported.

Israeli authorities said Livvix is a Christian and that he arrived in the region in 2013, living first in the Palestinian cities of Hebron and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank and then residing illegally in Israel.

News of Livvix's alleged plan to attack Muslim holy sites come as religious tensions have been stewing in Israel for months. Palestinian Muslims were barred from worshipping at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Tuesday as hundreds of Israelis entered with a police escort for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The ban followed a similar restriction enforced a day earlier that led to clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters.

American-born rabbi Yehuda Glick, who advocates for reclaiming the Noble Sanctuary for Jews, was shot by a Palestinian gunman on Oct. 29. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last month blamed Israel for provoking a "religious war."

On Nov. 12,  Israeli settlers carried out an arson attack on a mosque in Mughayer, north of Ramallah, hours after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an ancient synagogue in a predominantly Palestinian town of Shfaram in Israel.

Al Jazeera and Reuters