Police announced last night (Sunday) that they have arrested two suspects in the robbery and abduction of a Walnut soldier during the night navigation last week in the Haruvia forest near Shefar’am.
The suspects, according to the police in a press release, are 25 years old, residents of the northern Bedouin community of Ibtin, who were arrested inside a hiding apartment near the Bedouin village of Zabidat in the Jordan Valley, with ammunition in their possession. They will be brought to the Magistrate’s Court in Nazareth tomorrow morning to discuss the police’s request to extend their detention.
Recall, during a lone navigation training in the commando brigade that took place on Thursday, the personal weapon of a soldier in the brigade was abducted by suspects, after a physical confrontation between the parties, during which the soldier was lightly wounded in the face.
The chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, noted that this was a serious incident in which a red line was crossed. The commander of the Egoz unit, A., conveyed a message to his fighters following the incident, in which he stated that “a Egoz fighter who does not know To be a walnut warrior. “
A. continued in his statement and said that “even in combat, I will not receive a prisoner unless he is, God forbid, a body, I am sorry but this is a minimum standard in the unit. There are no prisoners, no kidnapping, striving for contact until victory.”
The message conveyed by the commander of the Egoz unit to his subordinates (Photo: Private)Preliminary investigation into the incident revealed that around 3:00, the soldier noticed a suspicious vehicle with figures, which came behind him through the dirt road he was walking on. The vehicle stopped next to the soldier and asked if he needed a ride, but the soldier ignored and later, the vehicle made a half turn in front of the soldier and stopped. The suspects got out of the vehicle and a confrontation ensued that lasted several minutes, in which the two tried to snatch the weapon from him in a fight.
The soldier called his commanders when he pressed the distress button and the company commander and the team commander joined him, but the suspects fled. The company commander continued to do a scan with his vehicle in an attempt to locate the suspects, but without success. Afterwards, the police arrived at the scene. Also, the whole incident took place hundreds of meters from the end point that the soldier had to reach.