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

A Bedouin man from southern Israel who joined the military to spy for a Palestinian terror group in the Gaza Strip four years ago was sentenced on Wednesday to 24.5 years in prison, authorities said. Shehadeh Abu Alqian, 29, from a Bedouin village near Hura in the northern Negev region, had been charged with enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces in 2022 to spy for the Mujahideen Brigades, as well as transferring stolen military equipment to the terror group. The Mujahideen Brigades is a relatively small armed faction in the Gaza Strip and is somewhat allied with the coastal enclave’s rulers, Hamas. The terror group participated in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, abducting several hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were all then murdered in captivity. The Beersheba District Court handed him a 24.5-year sentence on Wednesday for his actions. Prosecutors said the case of Abu Alqian had been referred to Interior Minister Yariv Levin to assess whether to revoke his Israeli citizenship. Abu Alqian was arrested by the Shin Bet on May 30, 2022, eight days after he joined the army. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms According to an indictment filed in June 2022, Abu Alqian sought to “act against the State of Israel and against its security” after his father’s illegally built home in the unrecognized village of Atir was given a demolition order by authorities in mid-2019. Illustrative: A view of houses in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Sawaneen in Israel’s southern Negev Desert, on June 8, 2021. (Hazem Bader/AFP) On September 9, 2019, Abu Alqian stole an M4 assault rifle and magazine from a soldier waiting at a bus station in the Yatir Forest area of southern Israel, and buried the equipment underground near his home, according to the charges. In 2021, Alqian joined the Mujahideen Brigades after making contact online with an agent of the group who called himself Abu Saliman, according to court papers. Advertisement The indictment said Abu Alqian provided the terror group with information on military helicopter movements, IDF training in the area of his town, and photos of a military base and of Beersheba’s train station. In March 2022, prosecutors said, Abu Saliman asked Abu Alqian for military equipment, and Alqian offered to sell what he had stolen more than two years before, as well as five grenades and thousands of bullets that he obtained by unspecified means. After digging up the materiel, Abu Alqian, with the help of a cousin, in May 2022 transferred it to a hiding spot used by the Mujahideen Brigades in the West Bank, according to prosecutors. He enlisted in the IDF that same month and, during the recruitment process, provided the Mujahideen Brigades operative with names, telephone numbers and photos of Bedouin soldiers serving in the military, the indictment read. He was convicted in December 2022 of aggravated theft, firearms offenses, membership in a terror organization, and assisting an enemy during wartime. Alqian admitted to the charges as part of a plea deal. File: Members of Mujahideen Brigades terror group participate in a drill simulating a war against Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 19, 2022. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) Shiri, 32, Ariel, four, and Kfir, less than a year old, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Advertisement Harrowing footage of their abduction was caught on video and widely shared on social media. Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas are abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, October 7, 2023. (Screengrab) Their bodies were returned to Israel in February 2025. Israeli authorities confirmed that the three had been murdered by their captors, with the IDF saying that they had been “murdered in cold blood.” The terrorists killed them “with their bare hands,” then tried to make it look like they were slain in an Israeli airstrike, the IDF added at the time. Help us report truthfully on social media As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos. This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. 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