Israeli security forces arrest 4 ISIS supporters preparing ‘great war of the end of days’ in Jerusalem

Four residents of East Jerusalem were arrested for preparing terror attacks against Jews while being influenced by the terror group ISIS, the Israel Police and the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet announced on Friday.

The four Palestinian men, all in their 20s and who live in Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood, were preparing for large-scale attacks, intended to bring about “the great war of the End of Days.”

Police said they were arrested after a weeks-long investigation, and that a handgun and additional military gear were confiscated during the arrest.

According to the authorities, the suspects were influenced by Islamic State (ISIS) propaganda material shared online, including execution and atrocity videos.

The announcement of the arrest came one day after the 10th anniversary of the ISIS attacks in Paris, France, that killed 130 people.

While the terror group carried out hundreds of attacks around the world over the past decade, it never managed to gain a strong following among the Arab population of Israel or Judea and Samaria.

This gap has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories shared online, with some users alleging that ISIS’ failure to attack Israel is “proof” that the group is secretly backed by Israel.

However, Israeli security forces have thwarted dozens of terror plots and attacks, either directly linked to ISIS or inspired by it over the years.

Another ISIS-inspired plot was thwarted earlier this week, when the police announced it had arrested and indicted an 18-year-old Arab Israeli who had studied how to produce explosives and bombs, and was found to be linked to the possession of weapons.

In 2023, former IDF Chief Gadi Eisenkot revealed that Israel not only fought the ISIS activities in Israel but also actively targeted it outside its borders.

“ISIS knows best how much the IDF operated in the Middle East – they paid the price of hundreds of casualties and injured. In 2015, there was an event in a specific location where we were asked to carry out an attack. We conducted a very extensive attack and hit many ISIS operatives,” Eisenkot said at the time.

This week, Syria’s president, Ahmad al-Sharaa – a former Al Qaeda operative who was once aligned with the future founders of ISIS before breaking with them and later fighting the group – announced that Syria would join the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS.

ISIS controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria, but was largely decimated by the alliance. Amid the chaos of the collapse of the Assad regime at the end of last year, the remaining ISIS cells in Syria have experienced a resurgence.

On Wednesday, the U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that operations by the alliance had killed five ISIS members and captured 19 over the past month.

“Our success in countering the ISIS threat in Syria is a notable achievement,” said Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander.

“We will continue to aggressively pursue ISIS remnants in Syria while working with the Global Coalition Against ISIS to ensure the gains made against the group in Iraq and Syria are lasting and ISIS is not able to regenerate or export terrorist attacks to other countries.”