A New Wave of Terror Hits the Holy Land

And How the IDF is Battling ISIS in Israel

By Tzvi Leff

On March 22, Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an woke up in the Bedouin town of Hura, a sandy hamlet situated in Israel’s Negev desert. First publishing a fiery screed on Facebook pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, Qi’an then climbed into his stolen blue Hyundai minivan and drove to nearby Be’er Sheva’s sprawling BIG shopping center.

Al-Qian didn’t stop driving when he reached a teeming bus stop and hitchhiking post, plowing into the dozens returning home from work and instantly killing two women. The Bedouin Islamist then disembarked from the vehicle and drew the kitchen knife he had armed himself with, stabbing and killing another two people.

Only when a nearby bus driver shot and killed the terrorist with his personal sidearm did the deadly rampage come to an end. The combined ramming and stabbing onslaught was Israel’s deadliest terror attack since two

Palestinians opened fire at Tel Aviv’s tony Sarona Market in 2016.

An elementary school teacher and father of five, Al-

Qian had previously served two years in prison after being caught attempting to travel to Syria in order to join ISIS’s campaign against President Bashar Assad’s government. The indictment was damning; after special forces arrested him at Ben Gurion Airport in 2015,

Al-Qian admitted to exploiting his position at a large

Arab school to recruit his impressionable charges into a radical Salafist ideology.

Far from showing remorse, Al-Qian boasted about the clandestine terror cell he established in Israel that aimed to wage armed jihad against “the Zionist infidels and the enemies of Islam.” In closing arguments, the prosecutor urged the judge to impose the maximum possible sentence, telling the court that “criminals like the defendant are a ticking time bomb, and it’s impossible to know when the countdown will begin.”

The grisly terror attack two weeks ago shocked Israel, coming from an Arab Israeli with full citizenship who collected a monthly salary from the Ministry of Education. Yet the panic really took hold four days later when Ayman and Ibrahim Ighbariah opened fire at a bus stop in the northern city of Hadera.

First shooting and killing Border Police officer Shirel fellow citizens.

If terrorism had traditionally been motivated by nationalist terror groups, the attackers were now fervent devotees of ISIS’s goal of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate. Israel has never experienced anything like it.

A WOrLdWide CALipHATe

had a bachelor’s degree, and over half enjoyed a middle class upbringing.

Their unlikely background meant that intelligence agencies had a particularly difficult time keeping tabs on local ISIS cells. Compounding the problem was the fact that many jihadists returned home on their foreign passports after fighting in Syria and Iraq, slipping back into France, Germany, and England to set up local terror networks.

Aboukrat at point blank range, the two cousins drew their stolen IDF-issue M-4 assault rifles and embarked on a murderous shooting spree. Killing Yazan Falah, another Border Police officer, the terrorists were cut down by undercover commandos who happened to be eating at a nearby restaurant.

The elite operatives prevented a massacre. Ayman and Ibrahim had been armed with no less than two machine guns, four pistols, and over a thousand bullets. Both were wearing body armor and had clearly planned to murder as many Israelis as they could.

Hadera’s deadly spree established a pattern. Like Al-Qian, Ayman and Ibrahim Ighbariah were Israeli citizens, residents of the nearby Arab city of Umm AlFahm. Like Al-Qian, Ayman and Ighbariah were admirers of ISIS and had published a video earlier in the day in which the masked jihadis declared their allegiance to the terror group while standing in front of its infamous black flag. Like Al-Qian, the cousins had previously done time in 2015 for attempting to fight with ISIS in the civil war ripping Syria apart.

The panic barreling through Israeli society hit a fever pitch when 27-year-old Palestinian Diaa Hamarshah opened fire at a busy Bnei Brak thoroughfare, killing three passerby and Arab police officer Amir Khoury who had rushed to the scene. Like the previous attacks, Hamarshah was an ex-convict who did time for attempting to become a suicide bomber and wrote a Facebook post filled with Islamist incitement prior to setting off to fulfill his murderous fantast.

By now, it was clear; Israel was experiencing a deadly terror wave unseen since the Second Intifada. But while Israel has a long history battling terrorism, this wave was different. If previous attacks were committed by Palestinians, Israeli Arabs were now turning on their

Founded in 2011 as an offshoot of Al Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is infamous for its public beheadings of Western hostages and strings of terror attacks its followers have committed around the world. Claiming to practice the authentic brand of Islam dating back to the days of Mohamed, the radical Sunni terror group seeks to establish a worldwide Caliphate administered according to the dictates of Sharia law. ISIS rose to global prominence after it exploited the chaos resulting from the bloody Syrian civil war to conquer large swaths of territory. At its height in 2015, the radical group controlled a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq, including major cities such as Tikrit, Mosul and Anbar.

At the same time, ISIS-affiliated jihadists pulled off dozens of the deadliest attacks Europe has ever seen. This includes a triple suicide bombing at a Brussels Airport in 2015 and blowing up 130 people at France’s Bataclan theater a year later.

From the outset, ISIS presented a unique challenge for global counterterrorism efforts. The Islamic State attracted tens of thousands of Westerners drawn to its vision of building a new world order run according to Muslim law.

While traditional terror groups such as al-Qaeda recruited primarily amongst poor and disaffected immigrant communities, ISIS saw tens of thousands of educated and successful professionals flock to its ranks. Doctors, engineers and lawyers, people with advanced academic degrees who had previously lived an upstanding life as law abiding citizens, picked up and moved to Syria to battle the infidel Assad government.

A prominent example of this phenomenon is Mohammed Emwazi. Born in London, the terrorist known colloquially around the world as “Jihadi John” was working as an IT expert and had graduated from the University of Westminster. But in 2013, Emwazi flew to Syria and was next seen beheading hostages in a series of gruesome videos.

According to a study by the World Bank, 30,000 fighters hailing from 85 countries had joined ISIS as of 2015. Out of those, 80% had graduated high school, 45%

SHiN BeT FALLS ASLeep

When ISIS began becoming increasingly popular, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency cracked down. Fearing that ISIS would recruit amongst Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, the agency launched a comprehensive The new wave of iSiS-inspired effort to stamp out the radical ideology when it was still small. terrorism rocking the Beginning in 2013, a special unit was organized, Jewish State has made tasked with monitoring social media pages known to promulgate incitement. Intelligence officers kept tabs it clear that israel’s on what was being taught at Israeli Arab schools; those intelligence community had returning from countries such as Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia were interrogated upon landing at Ben fallen asleep at the wheel. Gurion Airport, and extremist mosques were put under surveillance. The mammoth effort played a key role in ensuring that ISIS never took hold within the Israeli Arab community. At a time when ISIS enjoyed widespread popularity in Muslim communities throughout Europe, only 87 Israelis and Palestinians were convicted of belonging to the extremist group. That was then. The new wave of ISIS-inspired terrorism rocking the Jewish State has made it clear that Israel’s intelligence community had fallen asleep at the wheel. While usually highly professional and viewed as one of the world’s most advanced counterterror bodies, the Five people were killed in Bnei Brak Shin Bet is now undergoing withering criticism for its failure to foresee and stop the recent murderous spree. Every one of the recent string of attacks could have been prevented. As opposed to “lone wolf” terrorists which are difficult to prevent, as no one save for the jihadist himself knows what he is plotting, the attacks in Be’er Sheva, Hadera, and Bnei Brak were carried out by

organized terror cells.

Coordinated attacks commonly generate what is known as a “high intelligence signature.” The attackers communicate beforehand, resulting in phone calls or emails that can be intercepted. Weapons must be purchased, and potential terrorists disappear from home or work at strange hours or stop attending school – all things that attract the attention of the thousands of Shin Bet informants.

In addition, the perpetrators were all former convicts who previously did time for terror-related offenses. Prior to embarking on their murderous spree in Hadera, Ayman and Ibrahim Ighbariah had changed their Facebook profile pictures to ISIS propaganda, while Al-Qian in Be’er Sheva and Diaa Hamarsheh from Bnei Brak had

Four were killed in Beer Sheva

both posted jihadist screeds on the day of the attack.

Why wasn’t the Shin Bet paying attention?

In an off-the-record briefing with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, a senior police general related that the Shin Bet had inexplicably failed to build any intelligence infrastructure targeting ISIS in Israeli Arab and Palestinian society.

“We’re seeing a weakness at Shin Bet in terms of anything related to monitoring terrorist- or security-related activity against Israel,” he said.

“Over the last three years, Shin Bet security agency staff have not issued warnings on Islamic State activists being real threats, nor have they alerted the police to such operations on the ground,” the officer added. “Even when we were holding discussions to assess the situation, the representative from Shin Bet would be a junior official who didn’t add anything of substance.”

OperATiON WAve BreAker

The sudden spate of ISIS-inspired attacks has jolted Israel’s defense establishment into action. After the Bnei Brak attack, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued new directives enabling the Shin Bet to put Israeli Arabs in administrative detention, a holdover from the British Mandate allowing citizens to be imprisoned for six months without seeing a judge or a lawyer.

Realizing that armed civilians can be a force multiplier in stopping terror attacks, Bennett relaxed regulations in order to allow more people to be eligible for a personal carry permit.

“Open your eyes. Whoever has a license to carry a weapon, this is the time to carry it,” said the prime minister.

This past Wednesday, the Shin Bet raided central Israeli Arab towns known to be hotbeds of ISIS support, arresting over 80 terror suspects in Umm Al Fahum alone. On Saturday morning, commandos from the elite YAMAM SWAT team raided Jenin, shooting and killing three Islamic Jihad members on their way to commit coordinated terror attacks inside Israel. YAMAM operatives struck again a day later, taking down a Palestinian cell on the central Route 6 highway. Meanwhile, 1,200 IDF combat soldiers were deployed to major Israeli cities, where they will patrol and support police operations for the next month. This move is unprecedented, as Israel has traditionally refrained from handing police duties over to the military. While recruits in basic training had assisted law enforcement in 2015 during a wave of stabbing attacks in Jerusalem, never had armed soldiers been sent en masse to cities such as Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Herzliya. All of the new measures are part of “Operation Wave Breaker,” a new coordinated campaign involving the IDF, Shin Bet, Israel Police, and Mossad to constrain the violence before it spirals out of control.

A riOTOuS rAmAdAN?

The aggressive response stems from several factors. Most pressing is Ramadan, which began on April 2 and will continue until early May. The Muslim holy month traditionally sees an upsurge in terrorist attacks in Israel and around the world, as the holiday brings with it increased religious fervor while hordes young men are out of school and work. To illustrate, a recent study by the Dutch think tank Datagraver found that terrorism in Israel jumped 200% during Ramadan between 2005 and 2016.

With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs flocking to the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount throughout Ramadan, the defense establishment fears that a scuffle between worshippers and police officers at the holy site could trigger widespread rioting that would rapidly spread to Judea and Samaria and Israeli Arab cities.

On everyone’s mind is the unprecedented Arab violence that tore Israel apart last Ramadan. Beginning with tensions over viral TikTok videos documenting Arab attacks on Jews, matters spiraled out of control when police faced off with rioters hurling bricks and firebombs at the Al Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem Day.

Fueled by incitement on social media, the Hamas terror group launched rockets from Gaza “in order to protect Jerusalem from Zionist aggression,” leading Israel to launch the three week Operation Guardian of the Walls operation in response.

Escalations between Israel and Palestinian militant groups were nothing new. But for the first time in the country’s history, its Arab citizens joined in the violence out of homage to their Palestinian brothers.

For a week straight, tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs turned on their fellow citizens. In Lod and Ramle, only armed vigilante patrols prevented a massacre of the local Jewish community. In Akko, an inflamed Arab mob burned down Jewish hotels and businesses in the historic old city; hundreds of Bedouins blocked major thoroughfares in the south, pulled Jewish motorists out of their vehicles, and viciously beat them.

The unprecedented violence overwhelmed Israeli law enforcement and only an emergency call up of Border Police along with a curfew ended the week-long rioting. But the unrest left deep scars and shattered relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab sectors.

“In little more than a week in May 2021, Arab rioters set ablaze 10 synagogues and 112 Jewish residences, looted 386 Jewish homes and damaged another 673, and set 849 Jewish cars on fire. There were also 5,018 recorded instances of Jews being stoned,” summarized a recent feature in Fathom Journal.

“Three Jews were murdered and more than 600 were hurt. Over 300 police officers were injured in disturbances in over 90 locations across the country,” continued the article. “The intensity and scope of the Arab uprising was unprecedented in recent decades, if not since the founding of Israel in 1948. For many Israeli Jews, the fact that masses of Arab Israeli citizens expressed open support for, and actively aided, Israel’s enemies during wartime shattered an illusion of growing coexistence between Jews and Arabs.”

In recent months, Israel’s defense establishment began preparing for the possibility that the aforementioned riots would repeat themselves. Shin Bet officers had summoned extremist imams and Arab principals for a “chat” and implored rabbis associated with Jewish Hilltop Youth in Judea and Samaria to calm tensions.

Now, the fact that Israeli Arabs are leading the wave of ISIS-inspired terrorism is raising fears that the May 2021 riots will repeat themselves. Israel’s aggressive response to the Arab terror wave is designed to prevent just that.

Indeed, Sunday evening saw clashes between Palestinian rioters and police at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. At the same time, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi warned that the military was preparing for a massive escalation that would result in “Operation Guardians of the Walls 2.0” and that the violence could lead ISIS to attack Jewish communities around the world.

It may be “deja vu all over again” – all the pieces are in place for the boiling cauldron to explode. The next few weeks will tell if Ramadan passes peacefully or if the entire country will be rocked by violence, Hashem yishmor.