Islamic State has stepped up attempted attacks against Israel since October 7, data shows

NOVEMBER 2, 2026 16:55Updated: NOVEMBER 2, 2026 17:40Islamic State has stepped up its attempts to carry out attacks against Israel since Hamas’s October 7 invasion, attempting more attacks in the period since the massacre than in the previous nine and a half years combined, according to Aaron Zelin, the Gloria and Ken Levy Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in a publication released on Thursday.After compiling a database of publicly reported arrests by Israeli forces linked to Islamic State dating back to 2014, Zelin found that the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and other security agencies have disrupted significantly more IS plots over the past three years. In the nearly decade before October 7, 2023, Israeli forces carried out 50 IS-related arrest operations, compared with an additional 46 since the massacre.Zelin argued that the increase has not been limited to attempted attacks. The complexity of Islamic State’s plots has also evolved. Before the war, foreign fighters would travel to Syria or focus on spreading propaganda online, while there were just 18 actual or attempted attacks on foreign soil. Since October 7, the group has attempted 28 attacks, though almost none have succeeded. The plots have also increasingly involved direct connections to Islamic State, rather than being carried out solely by lone-wolf supporters of the group.For example, in late December 2023, Israeli forces arrested two men in east Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud neighborhood who, according to investigators, possessed chemicals for making explosives, a notebook containing bomb-making instructions and an Islamic State flag.Suspects planned to detonate explosive-laden truck near KnessetThe 19- and 20-year-old suspects had allegedly planned to load a truck with gas canisters and detonate it near the Knesset. However, the plot received little attention, which Zelin theorized was because public attention in recent years has largely focused on Hamas and Iran’s regional axis.An ISIS terrorist carries an Islamic State flag in Syria; Illustrative. (credit: NDLA)Near Hebron, a four-man cell whose leader was in contact with Islamic State operatives abroad manufactured approximately 100 explosive devices intended for use against Israeli soldiers. In the Arab Israeli town of Tayibe, near Kfar Saba, five men discussed how much explosive material would be needed to bring down Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Towers and planned a car bombing at the mall beneath them.In April 2024, an Islamic State-inspired Palestinian terrorist, Ahmed Dawabsha, murdered 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir in the West Bank.Zelin described the evolving strategy as part of a broader effort by Islamic State to encourage Palestinians to abandon Hamas in favor of the jihadist group. In January 2024, IS spokesman Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari urged Palestinians to turn against Hamas, which the group considers apostate and an Iranian proxy, and to fight “the Jews because they are Jews.” He also called on supporters to kill Jews and Christians “in the streets and alleyways” of the West.Islamic State aims first to target Israel’s “protectors,” namely, regional states that host US bases, as well as Jewish communities abroad, Zelin wrote. He pointed to a September 2025 article in the group’s weekly newsletter, in which its editorial team claimed that crossing into Israel was difficult because Arab states were protecting its borders.Past ISIS-inspired terrorism succeeded in killing IsraelisAlthough Islamic State has largely failed to carry out attacks in Israel, the group has inspired deadly violence there in the past. In 2022, two Arab Israeli terrorists who had sworn allegiance to ISIS shot and killed two 19-year-old Border Police officers, Yazan Fallah and Shirel Aboukaret, and wounded 12 others.Many of those involved in the more recent plots were teenagers radicalized online. However, in more than a third of the cases, the suspects had been in direct contact with Islamic State members abroad or were attempting to reach them.In 2025, for example, three residents of the northern Arab town of Arara contacted an Islamic State operative in Syria through TikTok. The operative sent them manuals and videos demonstrating how to build a bomb and detonator. Separately, a cell in east Jerusalem’s Sur Baher neighborhood was in contact with IS operatives in the West Bank and Syria and planned to travel to Syria for bomb-making training.In response, Israel has expanded its efforts to pursue Islamic State networks beyond its territory, arresting suspects in nighttime raids and carrying out strikes in Syria.Follow us on Google