Pro-ISIS graffiti was sprayed on a monument to fallen Druse soldiers outside the Druse village of Dalyat al Carmel, Coastal District police said Saturday.
The graffiti, which read simply “ISIS”, was sprayed on a monument set up by the family of a fallen Druse soldier on the “Druse sons trail”, a series of hiking trails and bike paths that links Druse villages in the north. Similar graffiti also reading “ISIS” was sprayed on a Jewish National Fund marker on the Carmel Scenic Road.
Earlier this week, police arrested three teenagers suspected of spray-painting “ISIS” in the nearby Druse village of Usufiya. Coastal Police said they are treating that incident as a teenage prank. A spokesman for the district said Saturday that they aren’t convinced that the spray paint found on the monument to Druse soldiers is linked to ongoing tension between Druse and Muslims in recent weeks, rather that it is likely also either a prank or part of a personal feud.
Over the past few months there has been a series of reports by police in the north of ISIS graffiti or flags seized by officers, as well as a number of cases in which Israeli Arabs have been arrested for traveling to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State.
In early October, police in Upper Nazareth reported that workers in the city found 25 ISIS flags stashed in a bag in the city’s industrial zone. The flags all had plastic mountings to allow them to be affixed to car windows. Police said they had no idea what the owner of the flags planned to use them for.
In September, Israel officially banned the Islamic State and associating with it or anyone involved in the organization.
