Israeli held over suspicion of supporting Islamic State
Police search of homes in Jaljulia day after killing of Israeli citizen turns up materials backing brutal jihadi group, including T-shirts
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJoshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor
A man from the Arab Israeli town of Jaljulia was arrested and four more people were questioned over suspicions they supported the Islamic State group, authorities said Wednesday, a day after a video was released showing an Israeli man being executed by the terror organization.
The suspect, 20, was not named by authorities. He is expected to be arraigned by a court in Petah Tikvah, the Ynet news website reported.
Another four people were also questioned by police over suspicions that they also cooperated with the group. They were released conditionally, police said.
The arrest came after a search of homes in the central Israeli town Wednesday morning turned up materials in support of the Islamic State, including T-shirts, according to police.
לפנות בוקר בוצעו חיפושים בבתים של חשודים בהתאגדות בארגון הטרור דאעש. חשוד אחד (20) נעצר והשאר נחקרו ושוחררו בערבות pic.twitter.com/XUXbYFm8VD
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) March 11, 2015
A number of Israelis are thought to have joined up with the Islamic State group, which has attracted 20,000 foreign fighters, according to a US report earlier this year.
In January, a Nazareth man was arrested upon returning to Israel after joining the Islamic State to fight in Iraq.
The group, which has captured wide swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, is known for its brutal tactics and use of slick propaganda material to spread its Islamist message.
On Tuesday, the group released a video showing the execution of an East Jerusalem man who had apparently joined the group before trying to escape and being accused of being a Mossad spy.
In the video, Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam, 20, is seen kneeling in an orange jumpsuit before an armed man and a teenage boy, who shoots Musallam repeatedly with a pistol.
The other man, speaking in French, issued a tirade against Jews, including praise for a recent terrorist attack in Paris in which four Jewish men were killed at a kosher supermarket, and threatened to attack Israel.
The 13-minute clip released online also listed other people the jihadist group claimed were working for Israeli intelligence.
— Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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