Israeli missing in Muslim country, family fears he’s held by IS

A 65-year-old Israeli man who attempted to travel to an unspecified Muslim country in June has not been heard from in three months, his daughter said Monday, expressing concern that he may have been kidnapped by the Islamic State jihadist group.

The unnamed Ashkelon resident, who moved to Israel 20 years ago, went to visit his brother in the Muslim country, following the death of his mother. The man also wanted to bring his brother and his family to Israel, Hebrew-language news site Walla reported the daughter as saying.

The man’s brother said he never arrived, and inquiries to the country in question did not provide any additional information, the daughter said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said they could not provide assistance, since Israel does not have diplomatic ties with the country, and Jordanian authorities claimed he had exited the country but did not provide information on his destination, she added.

News reports did not name the country.

The man traveled to Jordan in June and called his family to tell them that there were no direct flights from there to his intended destination. Instead three Arab Muslims had offered to take him for free to an additional country, from where he would travel to his birth country, Hebrew-language media reported.

“I told him it was dangerous, but he told me not to worry and that it will be okay,” the man’s daughter said.

After that conversation, she was unable establish contact with her father.

The man had been jailed on a previous visit to the country but managed to flee and return to Israel, where he was warned not to return, Walla reported official Israeli sources as saying. The man’s daughter said he had traveled to the country twice before in recent years.

The family was trying to stay optimistic, but feared he might have been captured by the Islamic State jihadist group, which has a history of kidnapping and releasing videos showing beheadings of foreigners.

The man’s wife had moved in with the daughter, who said the whole family was “depressed and sad” and did not “know how to deal with the situation.”

“We didn’t expect that this would happen, if we had known, we wouldn’t have let him leave Israel,” the daughter said.

A private investigator might be able to locate the man, the daughter had been told, but she said she did not have sufficient funds to pay for such services.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.