After October 7, ISIS made 28 attempted attacks in Israel — Jerusalem Post
After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, ISIS attempted to carry out 28 attacks in Israel — more than in the previous nine and a half years combined. This is stated in an analysis by Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jerusalem Post reports.
Detentions and thwarted plans
Zelin compiled a database of publicly reported ISIS-related detentions carried out by Israeli security agencies since 2014. According to his calculations, before October 7, 2023, Israeli forces conducted 50 operations to detain people linked to the group, and another 46 after that date.
According to the analysis's author, after October 7, not only did the number of attempted attacks increase, but so did the complexity of the plots. Almost none of the 28 attempts were successful, but participants in the plans increasingly had direct contact with ISIS operatives rather than acting solely as lone supporters.
In late December 2023, Israeli forces detained two men in the Ras al-Amud area of East Jerusalem. Investigators said they found substances for making explosives, instructional notes and an ISIS flag. The suspects, aged 19 and 20, allegedly planned to blow up a truck carrying gas cylinders near the Knesset.
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Contacts with the group's operatives
According to the report, a cell near Hebron, whose leader was in contact with ISIS operatives abroad, produced about 100 explosive devices for attacks on Israeli military personnel. In the city of Tayibe, five men discussed an attack on the Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv and planned to blow up a car in the shopping mall beneath them.
Many participants in the more recent plots were teenagers radicalized online. At the same time, in more than one-third of cases, the suspects contacted ISIS members abroad or tried to establish such contact. In particular, in 2025, three residents of Ar'ara contacted an ISIS operative in Syria via TikTok, who sent them materials on making a bomb and a detonator.
Separately, according to the Jerusalem Post, a cell in the Sur Baher area of East Jerusalem maintained contact with ISIS operatives in the West Bank and Syria and planned to travel to Syria for training. Israel has expanded measures against the group's networks outside the country, including carrying out detentions and strikes in Syria.
