A 65-year-old resident of Ashkelon traveled to an unidentified Muslim country in June and has since disappeared, his daughter said in a Walla! News report published Monday. 

According to the daughter, the man has traveled to the country in the past and was previously detained there. However, he managed to escape and return to Israel. 

Despite a warning he would be arrested should he return, the man flew back to the country three months ago, via Jordan.

“We came to Israel in 1995. The separation from his family and the death of his mother caused an internal crisis,” his daughter recounted. 

On his last trip, “he told me three Arabs were traveling with him, which sounded the first alarm. When I asked him what his ticket cost, he replied they were taking him for free. I told him it was dangerous – but he told me not to worry and everything would be okay.”

Since that last conversation, the woman has had no further contact with her missing father. 

“I called the Muslim country but no one would tell me if had arrived,” she noted. “We have no communication with him and he didn’t arrive at his brother’s house – they have no idea what happened to him. 

The Foreign Ministry has been no help either, the daughter insisted, adding that she and her family do not have the funds to finance a private search for her father. 

Despite remaining optimistic, the man’s family is feeling “sad and depressed” and fear he may have been taken captive by the Islamic State terror organization. 

“This is not the first time he’s gone there,” she responded to a query on how the family had allowed the man to travel to begin with. “He was in crisis following his mother’s death. Because he was having a hard time, he decided to visit his brother – so he wouldn’t be alone. 

“We never expected this to happen,” the daughter added. “If we would have known, we would not have let him leave the country.”