The two terror attacks in Israel perpetrated by Arab-Israeli ISIS supporters over the past week indicate a major intelligence failure by Israeli security agencies in failing to identify and monitor radicalized Arab-Israelis, former senior Israeli security officials told Israeli media on Monday.

The Shin Bet acknowledged its failure in not identifying the threat of the Hadera terrorists. Unlike the perpetrator of the Be’er Sheva attack, which was a “lone wolf” attack, the Hadera terrorists were members of an ISIS cell and made extensive preparations for the attack, including compiling many weapons and hundreds of bullets, training for the attack, and even uploading a video prior to the attack.

Additionally, the Shin Bet failed to monitor both the Be’er Sheva terrorist, who had recently been released from prison for attempting to join ISIS, and both Hadera terrorists, Ibrahim and Ayman Ighbariah (cousins), who were imprisoned for the same reason.

Furthermore, according to a Channel 12 News report, issues that cropped up during Ayman Igbariah’s prison sentence should have served as a warning to the defense establishment. Ayman served his prison sentence in wing 2 of Gilboa Prison, which is mainly populated by Fatah prisoners. The Fatah prisoners realized that Agbaria had much more extremist ideologies than other ISIS prisoners and began harassing and beating him. He was eventually expelled from the wing and transferred to the Hamas wing, where he served the rest of the sentence. In yet another failure, shortly after Ayman was released from prison, he was arrested again by the Shin Bet for weapons offenses but was never indicted and was released after three weeks.

Furthemore, the Be’er Sheva terrorist and the Hadera terrorists were granted lighter prison sentences than were recommended by the prosecution by “compassionate” Israeli judges, with Ibrahim only granted an 18-month prison sentence. According to a Haaretz report, the prosecution has requested that Ibrahim remain in custody throughout the trial as he was considered a high-risk prisoner due to his “deep identification not only with the Islamic State and Sharia, but with the Islamic State’s brutal actions.”

Adi Carmi, a former Shin Bet operative, said on Monday morning that the terror attacks must serve as a “red light to all authorities.”

“The situation is deteriorating,” he said. “We need to embrace the moderate Israeli-Arabs but use an iron hand against the criminal gangs to create deterrence. There are areas that should probably be closed military zones, and we need to forcibly enter them and clean them out.”

Additionally, senior security officials told Haaretz on Tuesday that the fact that the Shin Bet failed to predict the Arab-Israeli riots during Operation Guardian of the Walls was a major failure as well. How is it possible that Israel’s intelligence agency failed to identify that close to 20% of the Israeli population would attack their fellow citizens, with the situation verging on a civil war?

Another security official pointed out yet another Shin Bet failure, that of the housecleaner in Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s home who was caught spying for Iran. “The investigation of the case was superficial and no one was held accountable,” he said. “How can it be that the agency responsible for our security isn’t aware of a spy in the home of the defense minister? What other intelligence agency in the world would have failed to thoroughly investigate this incident?”

Israel Police told Haaretz that it’s incomprehensible that an Israeli-Bedouin associated with ISIS wasn’t monitored by the Shin Bet. According to another source quoted by Haaretz, the Shin Bet lacks a proper understanding of the Bedouin sector, explaining that in recent times, Bedouins are not necessarily loyal to the Jewish state anymore, with some marrying Arabs from the Palestinian Authority and Gaza and growing hostile toward the Jewish majority.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)