First Palestinian soldier from Israel joins IS: Shin Bet

A Palestinian citizen of Israel who served in the Israeli army has joined the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, the first soldier to do so, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said on Sunday.

"It is the first time that a soldier in the Israeli army has joined the Islamic State," the agency said in a statement.

The statement added that the man is a Muslim and had slipped into Syria via Turkey a year ago to join IS.

Shin Bet did not identify the man, but said he was from a Palestinian village in the northern Galilee region.

According to the agency, around 35 Israeli palestinians have joined IS.

And a number of Palestinian Israeli citizens have died fighting with armed religious groups in Syria, which has been wracked by war for nearly five years, judicial sources say.

Last week, Israel charged five Palestinians from the northern city of Nazareth with having ties with the militant group.

And last month it arrested six others on suspicion of planning to travel to Syria to join IS, after another Palestinian man crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into neighbouring Syria on a hang glider.

Palestinians and their descendants who remained after the creation of Israel in 1948 account for more than 17 percent of the country's population.

Military service is compulsory in Israel, including for Palestinian Druze who belong to an offshoot of Shiite Islam. But other Palestinian Muslims and Christians can enlist voluntarily.