By Qais Abu Samra
RAMALLAH
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group has no presence in the West Bank, a Palestinian security official asserted Monday.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, spokesman for West Bank security agencies Adnan al-Dumairi dismissed local media reports that security forces had apprehended a number of youths who had formed an ISIL "cell" in the West Bank.
"There is no such group in the West Bank; the Palestinian police have never tackled such a case," al-Dumairi said.
Meanwhile, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted unnamed Israeli security sources as saying that at least 20 Israeli Arabs had joined ISIL in Syria.
ISIL recently captured large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and declared a cross-border Islamic "caliphate," killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands in the process, according to the U.N.
A U.S.-led aerial campaign against ISIL targets in both countries, launched in August and supported by several Western and Arab states, remains ongoing.
Since mid-June – when ISIL seized control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city – the militant group has also battled Iraqi government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
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