Israeli Arab fighting for Islamic State said killed in Iraq

An Arab Israeli man fighting with Islamic State jihadis in Iraq was reportedly killed in a gun battle Wednesday, two years after fleeing Israel to join the ranks of the terror group.

The family of the 30-year-old fighter learned of his death from other Arab Israeli fighters who had fled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamist militants, Ynet reported Thursday.

The family, who asked that his name not be revealed, declined to comment on the report. “We prefer not to talk about it, we’ve been through enough,” a family member told the media outlet.

One family friend said he was surprised to hear that the man had joined the Islamic State group. “I wouldn’t have believed that he would do something like this and stay in the most dangerous place in the world.”

Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service and police believe that more than 30 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State in recent years.

Israeli Arab doctor Othman Abdelkayan was killed in October while fighting for the Islamic State in Syria, just three months before he was slated to begin his medical residency at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center.

In November, the Haifa Magistrate’s Court sentenced 23-year-old Israeli Arab Ahmad Shurbaji to 22 months’ imprisonment for traveling to Syria to volunteer as a fighter with the Islamic State. Three months after arriving in Syria, Shurbaji contacted a Shin Bet agent and begged to return to Israel, saying his attempt to join the Islamic State had been a “mistake.”

A bill approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and still making its way through Knesset seeks to crack down on Israeli citizens taking up arms with jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and will carry a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.