Israel attacked the terrorist organization ISIS in 2015, killing hundreds of its terrorist members in the process, former IDF Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot revealed on Sunday at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
“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.
“The campaign against ISIS was intensive and far beyond that of any other country,” he added. “With results that in some places surpassed all imagination regarding the type of operations and attacks carried out. Some of the actions went under the radar.”
“ISIS knows best how much the IDF operated in the Middle East – they paid the price of hundreds of casualties and injured.”
Former IDF Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot
An ISIS member carries and Islamic State flag in Syria. (credit: NDLA)“There aren’t many countries in the world that know how to identify targets the size of a postage stamp and insert a missile into a target within a radius of one thousand kilometers around Israel,” explained Eisenkot.
“Our enemies saw it, the Russians saw it, the Americans saw it. Those who know best how much the IDF operated throughout the Middle East are the ISIS operatives because they paid the price of the hundreds of casualties, injuries and damages and they knew who knew how to carry out these operations.”
Israel is ISIS’s biggest threat – and they know it
Towards the end of 2015, a German journalist spent 10 days with Islamic State and said that the radical jihadist group that has captured vast territories of Syria and Iraq was deterred by only one Middle Eastern country – Israel.
In an interview with the British Jewish News, Jurgen Todenhofer reflected on his brief time with the group, during which he engaged in conversations with ISIS fighters.
According to Todenhofer, ISIS expressed a distinct fear of Israel and the strength of the Israeli army. He conveyed the militants’ belief that the Israeli forces were too formidable for them to contend with. In contrast, ISIS aimed to lure British and American troops into Syria and Iraq, areas where they believed they held an advantage.
ISIS still tried to attack Israel
In August 2022, it was revealed that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested two ISIS-affiliated Arab-Israelis from Umm el-Fahm in July on suspicion that they intended to carry out terrorist activity for the organization, an agency representative said.
Mahmad Farouk al-Gabariya and Wabed al-Mahadi Masoud, both 21, were under the supervision of security forces because of their extreme jihad ideology. Masoud was known to the Shin Bet for previous activity on behalf of ISIS.
The interrogation of the suspects revealed that they had been making plans to leave Israel to fight for ISIS and had conferred with an Israeli citizen who had come back from fighting for al-Qaeda in Africa on how best to do it.
The Shin Bet then later said that an indictment was filed against the two suspects.
The Shin Bet has made multiple arrests of ISIS-affiliated suspects in the past. Another suspect was arrested in July and in his interrogation, he admitted to identifying with ISIS and preparing to fight with the organizations against Israel.
In March 2022, a wave of terrorist attacks broke out throughout Israel. Two of the attacks, one in Beersheba and one in Hadera were carried out by terrorists who identified with ISIS.
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