{"id":424784,"date":"2026-02-14T04:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424784\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T04:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:30:16","slug":"two-men-jailed-in-uk-for-islamic-state-inspired-plot-to-kill-hundreds-of-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424784\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men jailed in UK for Islamic State-inspired plot to kill hundreds of Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Two men were jailed on Friday for plotting to kill hundreds<\/a> in an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England, a plan prosecutors said could have been deadlier than December\u2019s mass shooting at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were both\u00a0convicted\u00a0after a trial at Preston Crown Court, which began a week after an unrelated\u00a0deadly attack\u00a0on a synagogue in the city of Manchester, in northwest England.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the pair were Islamist extremists who wanted to use automatic firearms to kill as many\u00a0Jews as they could in an attack in Manchester.<\/p>\n

They were found guilty little more than a week after a mass shooting at a\u00a0Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in which\u00a015 people were killed.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said on Friday that, had Saadaoui and Hussein carried out their plan, it \u201ccould have been very much more serious\u201d than the attacks in Australia and Manchester.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

Judge Mark Wall sentenced Saadaoui to a minimum term of 37 years and Hussein to a minimum term of 26 years, saying: \u201cYou were very close to being ready to carry out this plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hussein refused to attend his sentencing, having refused to attend most of his trial, which Wall said reflected Hussein\u2019s cowardice, describing him as \u201cbrave enough to plan to threaten an unarmed group with an AK-47 but not sufficiently courageous to face up to what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potentially one of deadliest attacks on UK soil<\/p>\n

Saadaoui had arranged for two assault rifles, an automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition to be smuggled into Britain through the port of Dover when he was arrested in May 2024, Sandhu told jurors at the trial.<\/p>\n

He added that Saadaoui planned to obtain two more rifles and another pistol, and to collect at least 900 rounds of ammunition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would likely have been one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever carried out on British soil,\u201d Wall said.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to Saadaoui, however, a man known as \u201cFarouk,\u201d from whom he was trying to get the weapons, was an undercover operative who helped foil the plot.<\/p>\n

Walid Saadaoui\u2019s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 37, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. He was sentenced to six years in jail.<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tIs accurate Israel coverage important to you?\t\t\t<\/p>\n

If so, we have a request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every day during the past two years of war and rising global anti-Zionism and antisemitism, our journalists kept you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. Millions of people rely on ToI for fact-based coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We care about Israel – and we know you do too. So we have an ask for this new year of 2026: express your values by joining The Times of Israel Community, an exclusive group for readers like you who appreciate and financially support our work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tI’m with you and will give\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tI’m with you and will give\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tYou appreciate our journalism\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.<\/p>\n

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.<\/p>\n

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing\u00a0exclusive content\u00a0available only to Times of Israel Community members.<\/p>\n

Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Two men were jailed on Friday for plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired attack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-424784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}