Two residents of northern Israel have been arrested on suspicion of pledging allegiance to ISIS, maintaining contact with a foreign operative linked to the group and planning to travel to the United States and from there to an enemy state in order to undergo terrorist training, authorities said.
According to investigators, the suspects, Kinan Azaizeh, 20, from the village of Daburiyya in the Jezreel Valley, and another man from Acre, carried out preparatory actions inside Israel toward that goal. They were arrested last month following a joint investigation by the Shin Bet security service and the police. An indictment has been filed against Azaizeh in the Nazareth District Court, while the second suspect was placed in administrative detention.
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Pamphlet with photo of the group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi found on the suspect involved with ISIS
(Photo: Israel Police spokesperson)
During Azaizeh’s interrogation, investigators found that he had sworn allegiance to ISIS in order to advance the goals of the Islamic State, expressed willingness to carry out security-related activity on the group’s behalf and considered carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The investigation also revealed that he was in contact with overseas ISIS-linked figures, learned how to manufacture pipe bombs and explosives, and planned to travel to Baghdad for training purposes.
“Information was received indicating that two young men were undergoing religious radicalization and advancing actions against state security,” said Chief Inspector Pavel Sakharovitz, head of the Minorities Department in the Northern District Major Crimes Unit, who led the investigation, in comments to ynet. “We arrested them on November 10, and the suspicion then strengthened that the two were consuming ISIS content online. They planned to travel to the United States, undergo advanced weapons training there and then return to one of the countries where ISIS operates as a terrorist organization.”
According to police, Azaizeh also planned to seize weapons from IDF soldiers conducting navigation exercises near his hometown of Daburiyya. “He pledged allegiance to ISIS and carried out surveillance of soldiers in order to identify opportunities to seize weapons,” Sakharovitz said. “He mainly looked for female soldiers, whom he perceived as weaker and easier to target, and collected materials on how to make explosives and build pipe bombs. He intended to harm the IDF.”
Images linked to ISIS were found in Azaizeh’s possession, including a photo of the group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with the caption “The final hours of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” and another image of an ISIS operative with the caption “Soldiers of the Islamic State in Sudan announce their pledge of allegiance.”
In a joint statement, the Shin Bet and the police said: “Since the start of the war, we have seen an increase in the level of threat posed by the Islamic State organization and its supporters within Israel, including a growing trend of involvement by Israeli Arabs in terrorism against the backdrop of the war’s influence.”
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Chief Inspector Pavel Sakharovitz, head of the Minorities Department in the Northern District Major Crimes Unit
(Photo: Israel Police spokesperson)
They added: “The Israel Police and the General Security Service view with great severity the expanding phenomenon of Israeli citizens seeking to act on behalf of terrorist organizations against Israelis, whether under direction from abroad or through local network-based connections. Law enforcement authorities will act decisively to fully prosecute those who pursue these paths.”
Attorney Ahmad Masalha, who represented Azaizeh during remand hearings, called his client "a normative individual. The security-related suspicions are not known to me, and I am not sure I will continue to represent him.”
Two weeks ago, prosecutors filed an indictment against an 18-year-old from the Negev who allegedly planned to carry out a suicide attack in Beersheba inspired by ISIS. According to the indictment, beginning in 2020, while still a minor, he consumed ISIS content that led him to plan a stabbing attack at a bus station on behalf of the group, targeting soldiers. He was arrested last month in a joint Shin Bet-police operation.
According to the charges, he purchased a knife and began training with it, searching online for instructional videos on how to stab people. At a later stage, he decided to carry out the attack using explosives or a suicide belt and searched for videos explaining how to make explosive materials. After October 7, the indictment states, he decided to carry out the attack on behalf of Hamas rather than ISIS.
A day before that indictment was filed, the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Mustafa Abd al-Nabi to 12 years in prison and Ahmad Natsha to five years in prison, both residents of East Jerusalem, after they planned an attack near the Knesset. According to the indictment, which was amended as part of a plea deal, they planned to detonate a truck bomb filled with gas canisters. They also regularly watched ISIS videos featuring religious incitement, beheadings and executions, and pledged allegiance to the organization.