ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi published a voice recording Saturday in which he threatened that Islamic State militants would attack Israel.
“With the help of Allah, We are getting closer to you every day,” al-Baghdadi told his Israeli listeners. “The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine.
This is no longer a war of the crusaders against us. The entire world is fighting us right now.”
The ISIS leader continued, “The Israelis thought that we forgot Palestine and that they had distracted us from it. That is not the case. We have not forgotten Palestine for one moment.”
The 20-minute-long message was the first of its kind from al-Baghdadi in seven months.
It was not initially clear when al-Baghdadi was recorded or why he decided to address Israel specifically.
Judging by his comments however, al-Baghdadi seemingly recorded the message sometime after Russia began airstrikes against ISIS and other groups fighting President Bashar Assad in Syria.
The intensified strikes by Russia and a U.S. led coalition, according to al-Baghdadi, have failed to weaken the group.
“Be confident that God will grant victory to those who worship him, and hear the good news that our state is doing well,” said the leader. “The more intense the war against it, the purer it becomes and the tougher it gets.”
