Tel Aviv – An Israeli Arab man from the Galilee was arrested last month for traveling to Syria to join the extremist Sunni group ISIS, and fight alongside the Islamic State, the police and Shin Bet announced Sunday.
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The man, Hamza Magamseh, 22, left Israel for Turkey on October 5th alongside three other friends from his village of Yafia near Nazareth. According to the Shin Bet, he and two of the friends decided to continue from Turkey to Israel in order to join ISIS, crossing the border where they then contacted people from ISIS.
The three were then taken to a training camp, the Shin Bet statement said Sunday, where Magamseh spent ten days before deciding to return to Israel by way of Turkey. After crossing the border into Turkey he flew back to Israel, and was arrested immediately upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport on October 24th.
The Shin Bet did not comment on the whereabouts of his friends who traveled to Syria with him.
On Sunday an indictment was presented to the Nazareth District court charging Magamseh with making contact with a foreign agent, membership in a banned organization, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
There have been several incidents of Israeli Arabs arrested after returning from Syria, where they joined ISIS or other rebel groups. Most, like Magamseh, were only in the country for a matter of a few days or more, and did not see combat. One man though, Ahmed Shurbaji, a 23-year-old native of Umm al-Fahm, was charged in November with spending three months fighting with ISIS in Syria, during which he attended a training camp, took part in two gun battles, and manned a checkpoint and took part in patrols against Syrian state forces.
Why arrest him? Just don’t let him back in.