Israeli teen indicted on terror charges for allegedly planning ISIS-inspired bombing
Prosecutors allege that 18-year-old from Negev tried to build IEDs, plotted to attack IDF soldiers at Beersheba bus station, after being radicalized by ISIS and Hamas online
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Prosecutors indicted an 18-year-old on terror charges Wednesday after he allegedly plotted to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack on IDF soldiers at a bus station in Beersheba.
The defendant, who lives in the Negev, was arrested by police in November 2025 on suspicion of committing security offenses while still a minor. He was interrogated by Shin Bet officers, police said in a statement.
Prosecutors in the State Attorney’s Office claimed the defendant initially planned to stab soldiers with a knife he bought, but later resolved to carry out a suicide bombing.
The defendant allegedly tried to create his own explosives. He tried to manufacture two devices, but gave up after realizing he didn’t have the necessary materials, prosecutors wrote.
He then opted for a simpler bombmaking recipe, throwing his two unfinished improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the garbage near his home, they added.
The defendant allegedly consumed online ISIS content throughout his adolescence, starting in 2020. He began to identify more strongly with Hamas later on, and decided to commit an attack in the terror group’s name following its October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.
He was charged in the Beersheba District Court with planning to commit a terrorist act involving aggravated murder, training for a terrorist act, and attempting to obtain a weapon for terrorist purposes.
After his arrest, police said the teen would be charged in a juvenile court, as he was a minor at the time of the alleged crimes.
In the past year, a number of Israeli citizens have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks after swearing allegiance to ISIS, including 21-year-old Taybeh resident Kamel Nashef, who was arrested in March after he allegedly made contact with figures who identify with ISIS, beginning in the summer of 2024.
Another Israeli teen, a resident of the coastal Arab town of Jisr az-Zarqa, was arrested in March on suspicion that he had been planning a terror attack in Israel on behalf of ISIS.
In January, police arrested four minors from the Triangle region for planning attacks, including one who had intended to “carry out terrorist activity inspired by ISIS.”
In addition, police and the Shin Bet said last October they had thwarted a plot by five Taybeh residents to carry out a car-bombing attack at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall under the banner of the fanatical terror group that originated in Iraq and Syria.
Palestinian assailants have also been recently accused of ISIS ties. In February, one of them, a terrorist from the West Bank’s Hebron who murdered three people and wounded others in a series of attacks in Jerusalem in recent years, was sentenced to three life sentences and another 40-year prison sentence.
The Times of Israel Community.