Bedouin man sentenced to 24.5 years for joining IDF to spy for Gazan terror group

A Bedouin Israeli man, Shehadeh Abu Alqian, 29, was sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for joining the IDF to spy for the Mujahideen Brigades, a Gazan terror group. He stole military equipment and provided intelligence before his arrest in 2022. The court also referred his case for possible citizenship revocation.

The Beersheba District Court sentenced Shehadeh Abu Alqian, a 29-year-old Bedouin man from a village near Hura in the Negev, to 24.5 years in prison for joining the Israel Defense Forces in 2022 with the intent to spy for the Mujahideen Brigades, a Palestinian terror group in the Gaza Strip. According to authorities, Abu Alqian stole an M4 assault rifle and magazine from a soldier in September 2019, burying the equipment near his home. He later made contact with a Mujahideen Brigades operative online and provided the group with intelligence on military helicopter movements, IDF training areas, and photos of a military base and Beersheba's train station. In March 2022, he offered to sell the stolen rifle along with grenades and bullets. With a cousin's help, he transferred the materiel to a hiding spot used by the group in the West Bank in May 2022. He enlisted in the IDF that same month, providing the operative with names and photos of Bedouin soldiers. He was convicted in December 2022 of aggravated theft, firearms offenses, membership in a terror organization, and assisting an enemy during wartime as part of a plea deal. Prosecutors referred his case to Interior Minister Yariv Levin to assess revoking his Israeli citizenship. The article notes that the Mujahideen Brigades participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and abducted Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, who were later murdered in captivity.