Description

Israeli soldiers carry the body of a fellow soldier killed in the West Bank, September 21, 2013. Photo by AP



Israeli soldier killed near Qalqiliya

QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- An Israeli soldier was killed in a Qalqiliya village on Friday, Israel's army said.

Sergeant Tomer Hazan, 20, was killed by Nidal Amar, 42, a resident of Beit Amin in Qalqiliya, Israel's army said.

Israeli intelligence services had received information about the disappearance of Hazan late Friday.

Intelligence reports indicated that the soldier had shared a taxi with Nidal Amar to the illegal settlement of Shaarei Tikva, which is opposite the Palestinian village of Beit Amin.

Amar convinced Hazan to come back to his village and once there lured him to an open area north of Beit Amin and killed him, Israel's army said.

Amar then dumped the body in a well. He told interrogators on Saturday that he had killed the Israeli soldier in order to use the body as a bargaining chip to free his brother, who has been jailed in Israel since 2003.

The men used to work together in a restaurant in Bat Yam.

Locals told Ma'an that Israeli forces raided the village of Beit Amin early on Saturday and sealed all of its entrances while raiding several properties.

Six people were detained in the raid, witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokesman said the soldier "was kidnapped and killed by a Palestinian near Qalqiliya yesterday (Friday) and his body was found" on Saturday.

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By Amos Harel for Haaretz

The murder of an Israeli soldier in the West Bank can be seen as existing on the seam line between a nationalistic and a criminal act. The main motive for the murder was, apparently, nationalistic. The Palestinian suspect, Nidal Amar, stated under interrogation that he had kidnapped and killed an Israel Defense Forces soldier, Tomer Hazan, in order to negotiate the release of his jailed brother (in return for the soldier's body). Amar’s brother, Nur al-Adin Amar, is a security prisoner in Israel, affiliated to Fatah.

But the circumstances under which the deceased soldier was enticed to go to the West Bank are totally unrelated to his position in the IDF, and there is a reasonable expectation that his presence in the West Bank was related to illegal activity.

Such attacks were common in the initial years of the second intifada, which broke out in 2000. Terrorist organizations looked for available targets — Israeli citizens who happened to be in Palestinian territory and who could be hit with relative ease. As the number of such attacks grew, the vast majority of Israelis understood that it would be wiser to steer clear of these areas out of fear for their lives.

There were several murder cases where Israelis were lured to the West Bank on various pretexts — for example, a romantic relationship that developed over the Internet; a visit to a hummus stand in Tul Karm. For the most part, however, the attacks were committed when the opportunity presented itself under circumstances involving more ordinary criminal activity: Israelis who went to the West Bank to make contact with criminals (in connection with car thefts, divvying up a haul from house burglaries or dubious deals, among other reasons) and found themselves the target of a terrorist attack.

The current security situation in West Bank is fundamentally different. The West Bank intifada died out around 2005-06. Intelligence control on the part of the Shin Bet security service and the IDF, on the one hand, and the Palestinian Authority's security services on the other, is well entrenched. However, the renewed calm is leading a larger number of Israeli citizens to go to the West Bank, which incidentally provides new targets for attacks.

In its statement on Saturday about the murder, the Shin Bet did not explicitly provide a reason for the crime. The agency sufficed with a quote culled from the suspected terrorist’s initial interrogation. The question over whether this was a premeditated, well-planned attack or a set of other circumstances that went awry, and to which the suspect is now attributing nationalistic motives after the fact, is still open - to some extent, at least.

The investigation is currently directed toward examining nationalistic motives. But it is also obvious that, from the moment he was apprehended, it was in the interest of the murder suspect to say he was acting out of terrorist motives. Such a statement would enhance his standing on the Palestinian side, in comparison to the case of a common criminal. Also, in the long run it would improve his prospects for early release through a possible prisoner exchange for future Israeli captives.

Against this backdrop, Israelis should exercise all due caution.