Former IDF soldier charged with training to fight abroad with Islamic State

Indictment charges that Khamis Sawaed, from the Bedouin village of Hussniyya, became interested in ISIS in 2023 and was planning to travel to Syria or Africa to join group

A former IDF soldier was charged on Wednesday with training to fight abroad with the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency said.

The Haifa District Attorney’s Office filed the indictment against Khamis Sawaed, a resident of the northern Bedouin village of Hussniyya, at the Haifa Magistrate’s Court along with a request to keep him in custody until the end of the legal proceedings, the security agencies said in a joint statement.

Sawaed, who is in his 30s, was arrested for interrogation “in recent weeks,” according to the statement.

Over the course of his interrogation, investigators found that starting in 2023, Sawaed had watched how-to videos on warfare and missile and drone production out of “identification with the Islamic State terror group,” the statement said.