JERUSALEM, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- An Arab from northern Israel was arrested for traveling to Syria last month to join the Islamic State (IS) militants, the police and the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, announced on Sunday.
A Shin Bet statement said Hamza Sami Sari Magasmeh, 22, alongside two friends from his village of Yafia in the Galilee, left for Turkey on Oct. 5, from where they crossed the border into Syria and arrived at an IS recruitment camp.
Once in Syria, the three men were taken to a training camp, where they initially spent several days of religious indoctrination, followed by a month-long military training that included handling weapons and physical fitness, at the successful conclusion of which they were due to actively participate in fighting against Syrian government forces, the Shin Bet said in a statement issued after a gag order was rescinded.
The intelligence agency said Magasmeh admitted during questioning to having trained for ten days before deciding to return to his family in Israel. He left the camp without notifying his superiors and infiltrated back into Turkey where he was questioned by local police and boarded a flight to Israel. The Shin Bet said he was arrested upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport on Oct. 24.
An indictment against Magasmeh was filed with a court in Nazareth on Sunday morning, charging him with contacting foreign agents, membership in an illegal organization, conspiracy to commit a crime and illegal exit.
Israel's Ynet news website noted that he is the first Israeli citizen to be indicted for joining the IS since Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon recently signed a decree outlawing the extremist Sunni group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq.
The Shin Bet named the two friends who traveled with him to Syria as Mohammed Sabr Kanana and Mohammed Marwan Kilani, but would not comment on their whereabouts.
According to the indictment, the three decided to join IS after watching videos posted by the group on YouTube, Israel's Walla News reported, adding that Magasmeh made contact with an operative named Karim al-Nasri months before leaving for Syria via the group 's Facebook page, saying he was from Palestine and that he sought to join the group.
In their correspondence, the two agreed that Magasmeh and his friends will arrive in Turkey during Eid al-Adha and then would be instructed on how to reach Syria, Walla said. At the training camp, they met another Israeli, Maharan Haladi, a 19-year-old from Nazareth who is said to had reached Syria a few days before them, according to Ynet.
Magasmeh's lawyer, Hazzam Yusef from the Public Defender's Office, claimed that his client spent several days of "sports training" while in Syria.
"He realized his mistake after a short while and returned by his own volition," he said.
Several Israeli Arabs have been arrested for traveling to Syria with the purpose of joining IS or other rebel groups seeking to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, most of whom returned home without having participated in combat.
Ahmed Shurbaji, a 23-year-old resident of the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, however, was sentenced by a Haifa court to 22 months in prison earlier this month for spending three months with IS in Syria, during which he attended a training camp and took part in two battles. The State Attorney's Office last week appealed the leniency of the punishment, according to Ynet.
Another man, Ahmed Habashi, 23, from the village of Iksal, was reported to had likely been killed while fighting alongside IS in Iraq.
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