Palestinian arrested for trying to grab gun at checkpoint, Israel says
Jerusalem, Apr 18 (EFE).- A Palestinian was arrested Tuesday after he tried to grab a gun from a civilian security guard at a checkpoint near Jerusalem, according to Israeli police, while eight Palestinians were wounded in a raid by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The suspect, described as a man in his 40s, was trying to travel from Ramallah to Jerusalem via the Qalandiya crossing, but did not have a permit.
“At a certain point, the suspect, who was assisted by crutches when walking, attacked the civilian security guard and tried to forcefully grab the weapon he had in his possession, without success,” police said, adding that the man was then taken into custody.
WAFA, the news agency of the Palestinian Authority, said that eight people, including a 68-year-old woman, were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after the Israeli incursion on the camp in Jenin.
“The forces were accompanied by military bulldozers as undercover special forces climbed the rooftops of houses,” WAFA said, adding that the Israelis fired on an ambulance to prevent Red Crescent personnel from entering the camp to tend to the wounded.
Other Palestinian media outlets said that agents of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency arrested brothers Ahmed and Muhammad Jaradat.
The Israeli government confirmed that an operation took place at the camp, but offered no details.
“In their swift and courageous action in the refugee camp in Jenin, IDF and Shin Bet troops prevented serious attacks against Israeli citizens,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Twitter.
Earlier Tuesday, two Israeli men were wounded in a shooting in Sheikh Jarrah, a mainly Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem that has witnessed a campaign to evict Palestinian residents in favor of Jewish settlers.
Israeli authorities said they were searching for the perpetrator of the “terrorist attack.”
Nineteen Israelis, most of them settlers living in the Occupied Territories, have died in Palestinian attacks so far this year, while Israeli forces have killed 98 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians. EFE yo/dr
