Ahmad Shurbaji (23) of Umm al-Fahm may have become the first Arab citizen of Israel to be arrested for joining the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria last month, but Ahmad Habshi had the "honor" of being one of the first Israeli Arabs killed fighting with them.
Habshi, also 23-years-old and hailing from Iksal in northern Israel near Nazareth, was killed on Saturday fighting in the Ramadi area to the west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, reports the paper Al-Hayyat, as cited by Walla!.
According to additional reports in the Arabic-language site Panet, Habshi joined the terror group at the start of the year together with four other residents of Israel's north.
Reportedly, the terrorist was in Syria for several months before continuing on to Iraq, where he eventually fell while waging jihad. Some of Habshi's family has accepted the terrorist's death, while others deny it.
Habshi's brother said "the reports on my brother's death in Iraq are lies and not true. Until now we still don't know what's happened to him, and we promise not to hold a mourning tent and receive comforters until we are sure about these reports."
The terrorist is in fact not the first Arab citizen of Israel to be killed while fighting for Islamic State - several months ago a resident of Wadi Ara in the north died fighting for the group in Syria.
As noted, Shurbaji became the first Arab citizen of Israel to be arrested for joining ISIS; he traveled to Syria and fought for the group, in what he described in an Israeli court as a "mistake."
ISIS has been rapidly gaining support among Israeli Arabs, as just last Tuesday a bag full of the group's black flags was found in Nazareth Illit. Just two days prior, an Israeli Arab teacher was sentenced to one week of house arrest and a 5,000 shekel (approximately $1,350) fine for possessing numerous ISIS materials.
Terrorists with Islamic State also released video showing how they took part in the recent terror war against Israel in Gaza, and at least one former ISIS jihadist was killed in the Gaza fighting.
The jihadist group's activities around Israel was most dramatically displayed last Wednesday, when ISIS in Gaza claimed an attack the night before on the French Cultural Center in the Hamas-run enclave. The incident would mark ISIS's first attack in Gaza.