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CAUGHT: Arab-Israeli joined IDF to spy for Gaza terror group

Bedouin working on behalf of Gaza terror group; said to be a distant relative of Beersheba terrorist who killed four in March 2022.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

An Arab-Israeli Bedouin who volunteered to join the IDF intended to act as a spy for a Gaza-based terror group, and engaged in illegal activity before being arrested by agents from the Shin Bet security agency.

Shehadeh Abu Al-Kiyan, 25-year-old from the Negev town of Hura, was detained just days after he successfully enlisted in the Israeli military, the Shin Bet announced in a statement.

He was arrested at the end of May. A gag order on reporting about the case was lifted on Thursday.

Abu Al-Kiyan is being charged with a number of security offenses, including active membership in a terrorist organization, aiding the enemy in war, intelligence gathering on behalf of the enemy with the intention of harming state security, according to Ynet.

“Intelligence gathering, photographing sites in Israel and stealing weapons in order to deliver them to terrorist elements” was Abu Al-Kiyan’s mission, the Shin Bet said. The relatively obscure terror group Katab al-Mujahideen, a Fatah splinter group, had recruited the man.

Notably, the Shin Bet said that one of Abu Al-‘s Kiyanprimary motivations for aligning himself with the terror group was to seek revenge against the State of Israel, after his father’s illegally built home was demolished by authorities.

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Following the 2021 demolition, he “contacted an operative from a terrorist group in Gaza, and expressed his desire to support the fight against Israel and enlist in the organization,” prosecutors wrote in Abu Al-Kiyan’s indictment.

Shortly thereafter, he stole an M4 gun from IDF soldiers operating near his home, and sent his handler photos of sensitive local sites, including a train station in Beersheba and a nearby military base.

According to Hebrew media reports, Abu Al-Kiyan volunteered for the IDF and was accepted in April – despite the fact that he is distantly related to Muhammed Al-Kiyan, who killed four Israelis in an ISIS-inspired terror attack in Beersheba.

Shehadeh Abu Al-Kiyan was in the midst of basic training when he was arrested by the Shin Bet.