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Israeli Arab paraglides over border into Syria to join fighting

The incident, which took place on Saturday evening, prompted intensive searches.

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An Arab Israeli has flown into rebellion-wracked Syria using a paraglider to cross the Golan Heights frontier, the army says, with the apparent goal of joining rebel fighters there.

An IDF spotter witnessed the paraglider crossing the border into Syria from the southern part of the Golan Heights.

Describing him as an Arab citizen, they said he hailed from the predominantly Muslim town of Jaljulia, a small community around 40 miles north of Jerusalem.

The area that the man flew into is in the southern Golan Heights, which is controlled by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, Yediot Ahronot reported.

Initially there was concern an Israeli citizen had been accidently swept into Syria by the winds on Saturday and captured by one of the rebel groups there. However, the report said, it became clear that he had gone of his own free will although the army spokesman said it was not clear which group he had joined.

A Syrian rebel whose group operates in the area said the paraglider had come down either in Quneitra province or western Deraa.

The government officially labels the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front as terrorist organizations, following recommendations by the Shin Bet security service. We will work to revoke his citizenship.

Israel is publicly neutral on the Syrian civil war, anxious that Assad, a long-time foe with whom it had maintained a stable standoff, could be toppled by more openly hostile Islamists.

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According to the Shin Bet internal security agency in Israel, around 45 Palestinian citizens of Israel have joined fighting forces in Syria, mainly entering through Turkey.

Israeli soldiers searching for the paraglider in Golan Heights on Saturday EPA