An intern at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon who had joined Islamic State was killed around six weeks ago, it emerged Sunday. Othman Abdul-Kiyan was killed while fighting with the jihadist group in Syria.

Kiyan, 26, from the Bedouin village of Hura, had gone to medical school in Jordan. After passing his licensing exams in Israel, he had begun a three-month internship in February in the internal medicine department at Barzilai. He was scheduled to do an elective month of training at Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva in May, but he never showed up and was never heard from again.

“Security officials questioned us about him,” a statement from Barzilai said. “That was when we found out he chose to join the ranks of Islamic State.”

His colleagues at Barzilai were deeply shocked. Dr. Yosef Mishal, director of Internal Medicine Department B at Barzilai, recalled a brilliant young man who was well-versed in many areas other than just medicine.

“He was witty, smart, sharp as a razor,” Mishal said. “He knew medicine in the fullest way one could study and know it. He knew about many areas beyond medicine. He knew literature, current events, as well as religion and the Koran – everything a man his age who had been to university could know.”

Of Kiyan’s work at the hospital, Mishal said, “He was very devoted to his work and treated his patients in a fashion beyond what’s expected from an intern. He was pleasant and friendly toward the patients’ families and the medical staff. I was very pleased with him as a doctor; he was a doctor that any department head would want to continue with.”

Neither Mishal nor any other member of the medical staff who worked with Kiyan could recall any exceptional behavior on his part, nor did Kiyan ever speak to them about what was happening in Syria or Iraq.

“He attended all the morning meetings and we never saw any religious or political tendencies. He was very gentle; we never witnessed any verbal and certainly no physical aggression. He’s the last person I would say would be violent. I can’t understand how he did what he did. If he had continued he could have been an excellent physician,” Mishal said.

Last week it was reported that four Israeli Arabs from a town near Nazareth traveled to Turkey earlier this month with the intent of joining the Islamic State.

One of the four dropped out en route and returned home, where he told the families of the other three that they were planning to travel to Syria. The report said the families were told the three left their passports in their Turkish hotel, took a taxi to the Syrian border and crossed it. Since then they have not made contact with their families.

Upon learning of their sons’ intentions, the families of the three contacted the Foreign Ministry and the Israel Police and even tried to get Interpol involved so that the young men would be arrested before they entered war-torn Syria.

Another Israeli Arab, Hamed Mohammed Habashi, from the Galilee village of Iksal, was reportedly killed with Islamic State fighters in Iraq.

