On Monday, a purported audio message from ISIS spokesman Hamzah Al-Qurashi showed him urging ISIS followers to shift from establishing an Islamic caliphate to target Jews in Israel, especially Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria.
As MEMRI translated, Al-Qurashi stated:
The infidels wish to put out the light of Allah by their continuous military and media campaign against the monotheists, a total war on all fronts. For this they have mobilized their media channels and the turbans of evil, the scholars of the tyrants and the champions of depravity, in order to hurl the most vile faults and accusations against the Islamic State. They distort its true nature and its creed, and its jihad in defense of the religion and the community…
Today we have begun a new stage in our war against you. The eyes of the soldiers of the caliphate everywhere are still turned toward Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). In the coming days, with Allah’s permission, there will be events that will cause you to forget the horrors you have seen during the time of the previous leaders, Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Our jihad shall continue, with Allah’s permission. The honorable, heroic sheikh, the commander of the faithful and the caliph of the Muslims, Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi has arrived. We pray to Allah that He will torment you, take vengeance upon you and punish you severely …
Oh soldiers of the caliphate everywhere, especially in beloved Sinai and blessed Syria, go for the Israeli settlements and marketplaces. Turn them into lands for testing your weapons and chemical rockets and other types [of weapons]. To the Muslims in Palestine and all countries: Be a spearhead in the war against the Jews and in thwarting their plans and their “Deal of the Century.”
We call upon you to join the soldiers of the caliphate, who are exerting themselves to remove the borders and the obstacles standing between them and fighting the Jews, who are determined, with Allah’s permission, to topple the armies and bring down the thrones, formed by the Crusaders to be a protecting force for the Israelites, and incite their brothers everywhere to attack the Jews and slaughter them, inside Palestine and outside Palestine, and kill them wherever they can find them…Oh tyrants of America and worshippers of the Cross: Search for something else in which to rejoice other than your claims of finishing off the Islamic State.
In January 2016, The Times of Israel reported that IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot “warned about possible threats from the Islamic State terror group, which he claimed has greater support in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than in any Arab state, with 16% approval, and said its adherents could turn their sights against Israel and Jordan.”
In December 2019, 21-year-old Ahmad Ja’abis and 19-year-old Basel Abidat were indicted for planning a terror attack targeting Jews on Israeli Independence Day in April 2020. Jerusalem prosecutors said the duo had attempted to join ISIS’ “Sinai Province” branch after expressing interest in ISIS in 2016.