The state filed an indictment on Wednesday against a resident of the Arab Israeli town of Jaljulia who in 2015 paraglided across the border into Syria to join the Islamic State terrorist group.
Nadal Salah, 26, was indicted on charges that include contact with a foreign agent, illegally leaving the country. joining a terrorist organization, and providing intelligence to the enemy.
According to the indictment, in October 2015, Salah and a number of acquaintances from Jaljulia plotted to leave Israel for Syria and join the Islamic State group and help it battle the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Some members of the Jaljulia cell originally planned to fly to Turkey and cross the border into Syria, but Salah and his friend Hussam Hajala planned a more direct entry into Syria using paragliders.
The two purchased paragliders, learned to operate them using instructional videos, and practiced in open areas near Jaljulia.
When the cell leaders informed them that the plan had been canceled, Salah and Hajala decided to proceed on their own. On Oct. 17, 2015, they brought their paragliders to the planned jumping-off point in the Golan Heights. But a malfunction prevented Hajala from taking off, so he and Salah decided to return home.
A week later, Salah tried again to glide into Syria from the same point. While airborne, he managed to evade shots fired at him from the Syrian side of the border and landed safely in Syria, where he made his way to an Islamic State post.
At first, the Islamic State operatives were suspicious of his motives. They put him in prison and interrogated him using threats and physical torture. They forced him to divulge information about Israel. Several times, Salah tried to escape but was caught. He told his captors that he had come to join them, and eventually won their trust.
Salah was eventually made a full member of the Islamic State. He was instructed to watch bomb-making videos, contact Israeli acquaintances and try to recruit them to Islamic State and build improvised weapons.
Salah was even photographed holding one of these weapons and sent the pictures to family and friends in Israel. He also helped the Islamic State members translate various Hebrew documents into Arabic.
Eventually, after a battle against Assad's forces, Salah was taken captive by the Syrian forces. He escaped at the end of May 2018, and had himself smuggled across the border into Turkey. In June, he flew back to Israel, accompanied by relatives and an attorney, and was arrested upon landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Attorney Roey Reiss of the State Attorney's Central District Office wrote the remand request, stating that "Given the severity, type, and character of his actions, which are based on [his] identification with a terrorist organization known for its unusual violence and brutality, there are reasonable grounds to suspect that he [Salah] will be a danger to the public."
The State Attorney's Office agreed to remand Salah until the end of legal proceedings against him.
