This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3213
October 12, 2007
Jewish Youths Rescued After Kidnapping by Arab Driver
30 Tishrei 5768, 12 October 07 09:12by Ezra HaLevi(IsraelNN.com) Three Jewish boys from Jerusalem were kidnapped by an Arab driver and surrounded by a lynch-mob just before police rescued them Friday.
The three boys entered a car - a cab according to some accounts - at the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem and asked to be brought to the town of Beit El, north of the capital.
The driver, an Israeli-Arab, drove into the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat instead, home to a radical neighborhood considered a refugee camp for the past 60 years. There, two other men joined him, demanding the youths' money and cell phones.
The driver and his accomplices threw the boys out of the cab in the middle of the camp, where an angry mob began surrounding them.
One of the boys managed to call 100, Israel's version of 911, before his phone was taken away and Police arrived just as the mob was preparing to attack the youths. A conflicting report had one of the boys climbing to a rooftop and screaming for help, alerting the police. The crowd dispersed and police announced that the incident was "criminally motivated."
Some cab companies have faced legal action for hiring only Jewish drivers and a large portion of Jerusalem's cab drivers are Arabs. Security experts suggest reading the cabbie's ID plaque, posted between the front and back doors, to determine the nationality of the driver by name. Others say the only way to insure one is entering a safe cab is to use reliable companies rather than flagging down passing taxis.
IDF soldiers are prohibited from hitchhiking after several incidents of Arabs pretending to be Jews on their way to communities in Judea and Samaria, in fact seeking to kidnap them.
IDF Raises Alert
The IDF has raised its alert for the four-day Muslim Eid el-Fitr holiday ending the month of Ramadan. It also is making provisions to allow Arabs from Judea and Samaria to visit families in other parts of Israel. Permits will be granted to Muslim men over the age of 50, women over the age of 25 and minors under the age of 16.
The army also is allowing Arab traffic in the opposite direction. The heavy traffic at checkpoints is expected to cause further slowdowns that have caused long delays at checkpoints that only have one lane.
Gazan Terrorists Wounded in Tunnel Collapse
Several Arab residents of Gaza were wounded on Thursday afternoon when the tunnel they were using collapsed. Doctors explained that the wounded had suffered from a shortage of oxygen following the collapse. The exact number of wounded and their condition was not made public. Tunnels have been used both for weapons transports along the Gaza-Egypt border as well as cross-border terror attacks in Israel.
The collapse took place in the town of El-Bureij in central Gaza, where IDF soldiers conducted an arrest campaign on Thursday.
The IDF concluded the operation later in the evening after confiscating seven launchers for Kassam rockets, wounding four terrorists and arresting 40 wanted men.
In Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, Golani brigade soldiers managed to capture seven terrorists on Thursday as they attempted to launch rockets at Israeli towns.
Bus Company Suing Bedouin Attackers
The Metropolin bus company has decided to press charges against two Bedouin youths who attacked a bus with stones as it drove on a Negev road on Wednesday night. The bus's windshield was shattered in the attack, and two passengers were lightly wounded. The attackers were arrested.
Negev residents have complained that their vehicles are becoming a frequent target for Bedouin stone-throwers, and say that roads are often blocked by lines of stones as well—a trap which can damage cars or even cause them to overturn. Metropolin officials said they hoped the youths responsible for Wednesday's attack would be forced to pay for damages to the bus in order to deter other potential attackers.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123899
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3213