Abdullah Gargawi of Segev Shalom was indicted Tuesday for planning a terror attack at Beersheba’s Forum Club and maintaining ties with ISIS operatives. During his interrogation, he described his intention to attack people at the venue.
According to new details from the investigation, Gargawi planned to blow up the club in the city’s Park neighborhood while it was full of people and then carry out a shooting attack. “I wanted to blow up the people dancing there - Jews or Arabs," he said. “I thought about Beersheba, but I didn’t think about the place where I would shoot."
Gargawi said that before Ramadan 2026 he searched YouTube for instructions on making explosives. After watching a video, he tried to obtain agricultural lime, sulfur and charcoal. He took lime from a storage area and charcoal from his home, and after failing to obtain sulfur, tried to use material from matches. He said that when he attempted to ignite the materials in his grandfather’s concrete yard, “there was a spark and smoke."
The Southern District State Attorney’s Office charged Gargawi, 20, with planning the Forum Club attack and maintaining contacts with terrorist operatives in an effort to join ISIS in Syria. According to the indictment, he began consuming ISIS-related content on social media in 2022 and later established contact with its supporters.
Before his arrest, Gargawi joined a small Signal group where members discussed jihad and events in Israel. After the group was closed, he deleted the app to cover his tracks. He later contacted an ISIS supporter in Syria seeking guidance on reaching the country and joining the fighting, and received information about routes through Jordan or Turkey. Another ISIS operative offered him the option of traveling to Yemen or Afghanistan to join operational activity.
At the same time, according to the indictment, Gargawi developed a plan to carry out an attack in Beersheba. Around February 2026, he began planning to bring a booby-trapped vehicle carrying explosive devices to the vicinity of the Forum Club and detonate them remotely while hundreds of people were inside.
The indictment also accuses him of illegally possessing weapons and ammunition. It alleges that he held an M-16-style assault rifle, magazines and ammunition for a relative, and during 2025 held weapons for another individual at different times, including MAG rifles, Negev machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles.
The investigation was conducted jointly by the Shin Bet and the Southern District Police’s central investigative unit. The charges include contact with a foreign agent, providing services or means to a terrorist organization, preparation to commit a terrorist act, training or instruction for terrorist purposes, and weapons offenses.