BICOM

ISIS has said in the latest edition of its newsletter, that it will “wage war on Israel” which will “not be limited by geographical boundaries or by international norms”.

The article in ISIS’ Al-Naba publication alleged that Israel fears “the spread of its [ISIS’s] methodology among the oppressed Muslims” and that the collapse of nation-states in the region “and the manifest failure of the Crusader states who protect the Jews to win the battle against it [ISIS] – all these are factors that caused the Jewish state to not sit idly by in face of this danger”.

The Islamist terror group Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, has persistently attacked Egyptian military forces in Sinai since 2013, but has also attacked Israel. Although the regime in Cairo has been their primary target, Sinai Province has also made clear that it opposes Israel. Last July, it was responsible for firing three Grad rockets into Israel.

Meanwhile, another ISIS affiliate called Shuhada Yarmouk is believed to have been active near Israel’s border with Syria. Although Shuhada Yarmouk has been locked in fighting with the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front, the 600-strong group is thought to possess tanks, armoured personnel carriers, mortars and other sophisticated weaponry seized from Syrian army troops.

The ISIS article pledged that its battle against Israel will be unlike that waged by those who “falsely attribute themselves to Islam,” an apparent reference to the likes of Hamas. Instead, ISIS said that it rejected “this ‘international order,” and had “no boundaries other than those which Allah prescribed”. The article claimed that “all the Muslims are potential soldiers in its army; and all polytheist combatants on earth, and the Jews among them, are legitimate targets for it”.

Setting out ISIS’ apparent ambition, the article read: “As the [ISIS in Iraq leader] Sheikh Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi said in the past, he and those that are with him fight in Iraq while their eyes are on Jerusalem.”