The Islamic State (ISIS) has released its first-ever Hebrew-language video, featuring a masked militant speaking the language fluently and warning that the extremist group will "eradicate" Israel and "no Jew will be left" alive.
The militant is shown standing in open terrain wearing green overalls, a black balaclava and holding a machine gun with a red-handled knife sticking out of a pouch on his jacket. He gestures with his right hand while he speaks, the other hand holding his machine gun.
After images of ISIS fighters breaking down the Iraqi-Syrian border and a map of modern-day Israel are shown, the militant pulls the knife from its pouch and continues to gesture while holding it.
The two-minute video was picked up by jihadi monitoring network SITE Intelligence, who were the first to reveal the beheading videos of American ISIS hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff last year.
"This is a message to all the Jews, who are the Muslims' number one enemy," the militant says, according to The Times of Israel's translation. "The real war has not even begun and everything you have experienced so far has been child's play—[it is] nothing compared to what will happen to you soon enough, inshallah [God willing]."
"We promise you that soon, not one Jew will be left in Jerusalem or across Israel and we will continue until we eradicate this disease from the world," he continues.
The militant then references the recent spate of attacks committed against Israelis by Palestinians, which has seen nine Israelis killed and dozens wounded in Jerusalem, other Israeli cities and the West Bank and goes on to talk about the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement that created divided state borders out of the various Arab provinces in the Ottoman Empire. He says that the group will eliminate the borders to reach Jordan and then Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Maj. (Res.) Aviv Oreg, the former head of the Israeli military's al-Qaeda and Global Jihad intelligence unit, says that the militant is likely an Arab citizen of Israel, one of dozens who have left the country to fight for the extremist group, but says that the footage does not signal a heightened security threat for Israel.
"It is probably one of the Arab Israeli citizens. It was fluent Hebrew and it seems that he grew up here, he knew the language very, very well," says Oreg by phone. "This is a bit strange because up to now, they went out only to fight [Syrian President Bashar] Assad. Israel and the Palestinian issue was never mentioned."
"It's more wishful thinking for them," he adds. "I wouldn't see any direct or close threat to Israel now because of this rhetoric. It's only words and propaganda."
The video was released after the radical Islamist group published two other videos last week, in which they hailed the shooting and stabbing attacks committed by Palestinians, entitled "Project Behead the Jews" and "Message to the Mujahedin in Jerusalem." The videos appeared to be an attempt to capitalize on the wave of violence and recruit more foreign fighters.
In August, Israeli security forces dismantled the first suspected ISIS cell in the country, arresting three suspects they said were planning to conduct attacks for the extremist group on Israeli soil.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
