Israeli authorities have reportedly foiled a planned terror attack in Jerusalem by two Arab residents of East Jerusalem who had pledged loyalty to the so-called “Islamic State,” or ISIS.
The Israeli security forces, including both the Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet), said that the two would-be terrorists had hoped to detonate a truck bomb near the Israeli parliament, or Knesset.
The Times of Israel reported:
“Among the targets and plans considered, the accused wanted to carry out a terror attack by detonating a truck filled with gas canisters near the Knesset, in an attempt to kill as many Jews as possible and create mass damage,” the [charge] sheet says.
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Police said that the suspects, aged 19 and 20, were arrested on December 26 in their homes in Ras al-Amud in East Jerusalem. During a search, security forces found chemicals that were believed to be intended for use in making explosive devices, along with a notebook with instructions on preparing explosives and ISIS materials.
An ISIS flag was found on one of the Hamas terrorists killed during the October 7 attack (above).
ISIS was largely defeated several years ago, when U.S.-led forces ended the organization’s territorial “caliphate” and killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2019.
Unlike the war against Hamas, the U.S. did not demand that the terrorists of ISIS receive their own territorial state at the end of the conflict.
Despite Israel’s continued success against terrorists from Hamas and other organization, there is increasing frustration at the difficulty of rescuing the 136 hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
In a news conference on Monday, Breitbart News asked Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman about whether military force could still bring home the hostages.
“There’s a precedent for bringing hostages home — we’ve brought home 100 Israeli hostages from the clutches of Hamas,” Hyman said, noting that Hamas released 110 hostages in November after “begging” for a ceasefire. He said that only military pressure would produce successful negotiations, because Hamas only understands one language: “Force, force, and force.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
