JERUSALEM
Israel had arrested its first national on charges of joining the militant movement Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), some Israeli sources have said.
Ofir Gendleman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Twitter on Sunday that the authorities had arrested Hamza Magamseh, a resident of Nazareth in northern Israel, last month as he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from Syria.
He added that when he was interrogated by Israel's internal intelligence agency, Magamseh had confessed that he left Israel on October 5 to Turkey in the company of three friends.
Magamseh added that he had decided then to head to Syria to join ISIL, Gendleman said.
He added that the three – all of them residents of Nazareth – had crossed the border into Syria and joined an ISIL recruitment camp there.
Magamseh decided to return to his family after spending ten days with ISIL, Gendleman added.
He said this was the first time an Israeli citizen was accused of joining the militant organization that had overrun vast territories in both Iraq and Syria.
Gendleman described as a "dangerous phenomenon" the travel of Israel's Arabs to Syria to join ISIL.
In October, Israel considered ISIL a law-breaking and illegal organization.
An international coalition led by the United States has been launching airstrikes against ISIL targets and troops in both Syria and Iraq for several weeks now.
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