A Swedish-Lebanese man has pleaded not guilty to charges he was planning an attack against Israeli citizens on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, AP reports.

The eight charges read out in a Limassol court on Friday, Oct 5 against 24-year-old Hossam Taleb Yaacoub include conspiracy and consent to commit a criminal offense and participation in a criminal organization by "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens."

Yaacoub originally faced 17 "terrorism and terrorism-related" charges according to police, but prosecutors last month dropped terrorism from the new charges.

Israel's prime minister has said that Yaacoub was a Hezbollah operative who used the same "modus operandi" as a suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July.