They then planned to drive to the Prestwich and Broughton Park neighbourhoods, home to a large Jewish community, targeting synagogues and other communal sites. If they survived confrontations with police, they intended to attack a military base and kill service personnel.
Saadaoui had told an undercover operative that a march against antisemitism in Manchester would be a “very beautiful time” to attack Jews.
To achieve the highest possible number of deaths and casualties, he planned to wait until the event in Manchester city centre was at its busiest.
Intending to dress like Orthodox Jewish men, the pair planned to begin their attack from within the crowd. Saadaoui would wear a GoPro video camera to broadcast real-time and pledge allegiance to Isis.
The two men hoped to die as “martyrs” during the attack.
MPs and Jewish communal heads lead Manchester's march against antisemitism (Photo: Ruthless Images)[Missing Credit]
When Saadaoui was speaking to an undercover operative in February 2024, he said: “I would rather be killed than go to their prisons… You know, when you go to the Islamic State religious training camps, they don’t train you how to use weapons first; they train you how never to surrender. You keep one bullet or a knife or anything on you, if it didn’t work, it is better to finish your life and become a martyr to go to Heaven than to be taken hostage”.
Bilal Saadaoui, Walid Saadaoui’s younger brother, was sentenced to six years behind bars for failing to disclose information about the plot.
The plot, uncovered in a covert counterterrorism operation codenamed Operation Catogenic, ran from December 2023 until the men’s arrests in May 2024 and was described by Counter Terrorism Policing North West as the “largest scale and most complex covert counterterrorism investigation ever conducted” in the region.
According to the 12-page CST report, Saadaoui carried out reconnaissance of Jewish locations, including walking past a Jewish school during the school day and suggesting poisoning its water supply.
He told the undercover officer: “This is a school, this one. It is school time. There is one hour and a half left. We will go to poison them; we will put poison in the water… Their children, their cars, and their houses.”
Surveillance image of Amar Hussein (right) and Walid Saadaoui at the White Cliffs of Dover, May 8 2024 (Photo: CST)[Missing Credit]
He and the undercover officer also entered a kosher supermarket opposite a synagogue to assess how it might be attacked.
Saadaoui told the undercover officer: “I go to the back and you at the front… We can have the pieces [guns] in the bags… If they move to the left then you kill him on the left.”
The officer had suggested buying something at the shop, but Saadaoui refused, saying he did not want to give money to Jews because “all of the money will go to Israel.”
He told the officer that they should attack the shop late one evening when it was full of people
Saadaoui told the undercover officer that he hated Jews. He told him that Jews were “the most cowardly of people” and declared, “These are the killers of the messengers and prophets”.
He would also tell the officer: “Hitler may God be exulted was burning them, the Jews. Did you know, may God make them ugly!... Imagine yourself amongst them and you are wearing a rucksack. And then you start. They wouldn’t have where to escape…”
Hussein and Saadaoui would ultimately go to the south coast to monitor what they believed to be the weapons shipment that the undercover officer was smuggling into the country.
Bilal Saadaoui refused to take part in the plot, but his brother had left him with money, which he was to give to his family after the attack was carried out. The three men were subsequently arrested by the police.
According to the report, Hussein denied being involved in planning an attack with Saadaoui, but declared that he was “proud” to be a terrorist, expressed support for Isis, referred to Jews as “dogs” and police as “pigs”, and described terrorism as part of his religion.
“Quran says terrorism is normal… we are proud, we say terrorism is proud,” he told police.
He also made comments about the war in Gaza, blaming Sir Keir Starmer for children in the Strip being killed.
“Your prime minister sent weapons to Israel to kill our children, you don’t see them in Gaza, you see it or don’t see it…Your prime minister you know, he is terrorist that kills our children and gives Israel weapon and kill our children…Your government wants Israeli to kill us, to kiss [sic] our children,” he said.
Weapons seized during the arrest of Walid Saadaoui (Photo: CST)[Missing Credit]
All three of the men on trial had possessed numerous Islamic songs produced by Isis, according to the prosecution.
One of these, titled “And kill them where you have encountered them”, was sent to the undercover officer by Saadaoui. It stated “The battle with the Jews is a religious battle,” and “The Muslim is fighting the Jews because they have disbelieved in God almighty”.
The trial began in October 2025, days after a separate Islamist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue that left two men dead.
There is no evidence of any link between that attack and the Saadaoui and Hussein’s plot.
In sentencing the men, Mr Justice Wall said he was “sure” they intended to use AK-47 rifles to launch a deadly attack in Manchester that “would have led to the deaths of many people and serious injury to very many more”.
Clip from video sent to Walid Saadaoui by the undercover officer January 2024 (Photo: CST)[Missing Credit]
He said they were “very close” to carrying out the plan, with timing dependent only on when the Jewish community organised its next march. Their messages showed “how deep seated your hatred is for Jewish people”.
Describing both men as “fervent supporters of Isis”, the judge said they were also prepared to kill Christians, police officers and Muslims who rejected their extremism.
He found “no indication” that the threat they posed had diminished since their arrests, nor that it would necessarily lessen over time.
Sentencing Bilel Saadaoui, the judge said Bilel’s actions were driven partly by familial loyalty and partly because he shared some of his brother’s “views and prejudices”.
The CST said the planned attack demonstrated both the appeal of Isis ideology and the scale of the threat facing British Jews.
A spokesperson for the Jewish security charity said: “This report draws on court proceedings and official material to detail the terrorists’ plans to kill hundreds of people in Manchester’s Jewish community, the hateful ideology that drove them, the astonishing courage of the undercover police operative who infiltrated and disrupted the gang, and the wider implications for Jewish security and for counter‑terrorism.
“We believe this report is an important contribution to understanding the persistent threat of anti-Jewish terrorism in the UK and the measures that need to be taken to protect the Jewish community, and wider society, from this growing danger.”
Surveillance image of Bilel Saadaoui (left) and Walid Saadaoui (right) sat in Heaton Park in Prestwich, north Manchester on 5 April 2024 (Photo: CST)[Missing Credit]