Israeli authorities revealed on Sunday that a resident of the Arab city Tira, located in the southern Galilee region known as the Arab Triangle, was arrested on suspicion of security offenses, including identification with the Islamic State terrorist organization.
The suspect was indicted in the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on charges including incitement to terrorism.
According to the Israel Police, the suspect stated that he did not recognize the State of Israel and that an Islamic state should be established in its place. He also stated that anyone who is not Muslim should be killed.
The 22-year-old allegedly published social media posts hailing ISIS and calling for attacks on Jews during the ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, Israeli security forces arrested three residents of southeastern Jerusalem’s Umm Tuba neighborhood on suspicion of being members of ISIS.
The three men, all in their 20s, are believed to have made contact with ISIS terrorists through social media. They allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and had concrete plans to leave Israel and join the terrorist group.
According to the Israeli statement, pro-ISIS materials and large amounts of cash were found during a police search of the suspects’ homes.
On Nov. 5, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian ISIS operative, Nabil Halabia, during an overnight arrest raid in the Arab village of Abu Dis outside Jerusalem. Halabia was recently jailed in Israel but was released in July.
The Israel Defense Forces said that from the moment he was released, Halabia “recruited a squad, purchased weapons and carried out a shooting attack against IDF forces in the area.”
In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 cross-border attack on southwestern Israel, security forces found an ISIS flag on the body of one of the terrorists they killed in Kibbutz Sufa.
“Hamas is ISIS—this is not a slogan because we found terrorists with ISIS flags. We also found ISIS booklets. Hamas is ISIS,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari noted on Oct. 12.
In November, Israel’s parliament passed a law banning for two years the “systematic and prolonged” online viewing of pro-terrorist content.
The law, which expires in 2025 but can be extended, bars Israelis from systematically viewing online content that glorifies ISIS and Hamas. Anyone found guilty faces a prison sentence of up to one year.
The law contains an exception for people who watch terrorist content “randomly, in good faith, or for a legitimate reason including providing information to the public, preventing terror attacks, or for research purposes.”
