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Illustrative scene. File. Published by Maan News
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces have detained 18 Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank for being in a WhatsApp group with a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces on Monday after allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement on Sunday that the detained were all members of a group called “Road to heaven” on the messaging application, which she said was used to share religious messages.

Al-Samri implied in her statement that Ibrahim Mahmoud Matar, the slain Jerusalemite youth, had been influenced by the WhatsApp group to carry out the alleged attack, and added that 10 of the 18 had their detention extended to Monday.

However, Matar’s family has insisted that the 25-year-old blacksmith was “executed in cold blood” and was not committing an attack at the time of his death.

Since a wave of unrest began in October 2015, which has left some 260 Palestinians and 40 Israelis killed, rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases, denouncing what they have termed as a "shoot-to-kill" policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death, or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner -- amid a backdrop of impunity for Israeli forces who have committed the killings.Israel's response to attacks have meanwhile be denounced as "collective punishment" and illegal under international law.
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Israel Arrests 18 Palestinians Over WhatsApp Group Linked to Assailant

The suspects, who are from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, are thought to be members of 'Road to Paradise,' a group set up primarily to disseminate Muslim religious content.

by Yotam Berger for Haaretz
Mar 19, 2017 6:15 PM

The Israel Police arrested 18 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank on suspicion of belonging to a group called the "Road to Paradise" on the WhatsApp messaging app. The group was set up primarily to disseminate Muslim religious content and its members had recently become increasingly religious, Jerusalem police sources said.

One of the members of the group was Ibrahim Mattar, the 25-year-old assailant who carried out a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem last week in which two border police officers were moderately wounded. Mattar was shot and killed in the incident. The 18 suspects were taken into custody in the course of the investigation of the stabbing attack.

Although police accuse the new suspects of "conspiracy to commit a crime," eight of the eighteen were freed from custody. Sources in the police spokesman's office said the arrests were carried out to foil the group's plans and to disrupt the intentions of others who may have wanted to follow in Mattar's footsteps.