An Israeli Arab citizen has been accused of working with the Islamic State terror group in a plot to blow up a bus.

Anas Haj Yehiye was arrested last month but his name and details of the charges against him were only released this week.

The Shin Bet security service in Israel said there was evidence he had “been in contact with Islamic State operatives and had disseminated both extremist material and knowledge regarding the production of explosives”.

An investigation found Haj Yehiye had intended to create an IS cell in Israel with the aim of recruiting others and committing acts of terrorism.

“Haj Yehiye was asked to initiate a bus attack in Tel Aviv and against IDF [Israeli Defence Force] soldiers but the plans were never realised,” said Shin Bet. “He swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr-al-Baghdadi and had considered going to Syria in order to join in the fighting alongside terrorist operatives.”

Haj Yehiye is 35 and lives in the Israeli city of Taibe. Around a fifth of the population of Israel (1.45 million people) is of Palestinian Arabic descent. About 80 per cent are Muslim, the rest are Christians and Druze. The Shin Bet believes at least 50 Arab Israelis have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join IS in recent years, but it is unusual for IS recruits in Israel to plan attacks at home.