Jerusalem – A Jerusalem district court has indicted a Palestinian from east Jerusalem on charges of traveling to Syria to join and fight with the Islamic State militant group.
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The Shin Bet security service says Khalil Khalil, born in 1990, had joined a gym at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to physically prepare for the mission.
The agency says he told his family he was going on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but instead, he and a friend flew to Istanbul in January and then traveled to a safe house in southern Turkey. From there, smugglers brought them to Syria.
Khalil returned after a few weeks and was later arrested by the Shin Bet.
It says about 40 Palestinians and Arab-Israeli citizens have gone to fight with militant groups in Syria.