World Bulletin/News Desk

Israeli Interior Minister Gilad Erdan has filed a request to withdraw the citizenship of three Arab Israelis accused of "terrorism", Israel's public radio reported Tuesday.

According to the broadcaster, Erdan has asked the Israeli government's legal advisor, Yehuda Feinstein, for a green light to revoke the citizenship of Mohamed Mafarja, Dirgham Mahajna and Arsan Assad.

Mafarja, currently serving a life sentence in Israel, was convicted of staging a bomb attack in Tel Aviv in late 2012 which left 27 Israelis dead.

Assad, who is serving a seven-year jail term in Israel, fought for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) during the 1970s along with Mahajna, who was never formally prosecuted.

Erdan, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, recently revoked the permanent Jerusalem ID of the wife of Ghassan Abu Gamal, one of two Palestinians who carried out an attack on a West Jerusalem synagogue last month.

Israel's Supreme Court, however, suspended the move after the wife, Nadia Abu Gamal, appealed the decision.

Israeli forces had gunned down both Palestinian assailants at the scene of the attack.

Erdan had also revoked the Jerusalem ID of Palestinian prisoner Mohamed Nadi, who was convicted of carrying out an attack at a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2001 that killed 21 Israelis.

Netanyahu had recently announced plans to propose a bill allowing the cancellation of the permanent residency status – and the social services that accompany it – of anyone involved in "terrorist" operations and their families.

Permanent residency status refers to the Jerusalem ID granted to some 300,000 Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem.

This is distinct from the Israeli citizenship granted to Palestinians who refused to leave their land when Israel was founded in 1948.

In 1948, some 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes – or were forcibly expelled by Jewish forces – after the creation of the new state of Israel, while hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were razed to the ground.

Israel went on to occupy East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.

It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinians demand the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem – currently occupied by Israel – as its capital.