Three
Palestinian Authority security officers who attacked Jewish pilgrims at
Joseph's Tomb in 2011 and killed Ben-Yosef Livnat were apprehended
after being released from Palestinian jail • One more suspect still in
PA custody.
The late Ben-Yosef Livnat
|
Photo credit: Shomron settler council  |
||||
|
Three Palestinian law enforcement officials
who allegedly killed an Israeli near Nablus in 2011 were apprehended in
May by the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.
The arrests, which were embargoed until Tuesday, were carried out with the help of the Shin Bet security agency.
Ben-Yosef Livnat, an Israeli from the Samaria
community of Elon Moreh and the nephew of Culture and Sport Minister
Limor Livnat, was killed in April 2011 when a group of Israelis tried to
cross a Palestinian checkpoint en route to Joseph's Tomb, where they
had planned to pray. Due to the sensitive location of the site -- on the
outskirts of Nablus -- Jews who wish to pray there must obtain the
necessary permits from the Israeli authorities. Livnat and the other
Israelis in the group did not coordinate their visit and were fired upon
when they tried to pass through the Palestinian checkpoint. Several
others were injured as well.
The three Palestinian officers -- Nawaf Fahd
Nawaf Bani Uda, 24, Wa'el Khussein Muhammad Daud, 24, and Raki Diab
Turki Zu'ara, 23 -- had been incarcerated in a Palestinian Authority
prison for the past two years, having pleaded guilty to unlawful use of
weapons that involved firing in the air. Uda and Daud were armed patrol
officers at the checkpoint, whereas Uda was unarmed, as he was the
driver of a vehicle at the time of the incident.
Two additional officers who are thought to be
involved in the shooting -- the force's commander and another patrol
officer -- have not been detained. The former is still serving a
sentence in a Palestinian prison whereas the latter is holed up in a
Palestinian security installation to avoid being captured.
The three detainees were interrogated by Shin
Bet officers and later confessed they deliberately fired on the Israeli
convoy even though they were not in a life-threatening situation. Shin
Bet officials believe the new information implicates one of them as the
shooter who killed Livnat.
Furthermore, Shin Bet officials say the
detainees colluded to provide false testimony and placed stones at the
site of the shooting to create the impression that they were subject to
rock-throwing activity prior to the incident.
Later, according to the Shin Bet, they
deliberately injured the leg of one of them, with the help of one of the
prison guards, to falsify evidence that would lend credence to their
claim of being under attack. The detainees are likely to be prosecuted
by the IDF Military Advocate General.
No comments:
Post a Comment