Palestinians set fire to the Jewish pair’s vehicle after they inadvertently entered the Palestinian Authority (PA) city.
By Erin Viner
The IDF confirmed that a mob had attacked the 2 men in the central Al-Manara Square last night.
Local media identified both victims as members of the ultra-Orthodox Bratslav Hasidic sect, clad in discernably Jewish clothing. One is a resident of the predominantly religious central city of Elad, and the other in the Shiloh community in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
The men were en route to the Hashmonaim settlement west of Ramallah, said an Israeli security official.
One of the Israelis reportedly blamed an Arab man they had asked for directions at a nearby gas station, that instead sent them directly into a hailstorm of “cinderblocks and stones.”
Video of the incident shows a mob of Palestinians shouting at the Israelis while surrounding the car, which was later vandalized and torched.
According to a Channel 12 report, one eyewitness said the Israelis “survived a certain death” after PA police rescued the pair.
“The citizens left accompanied by Palestinian security forces in coordination with the (Israeli) security forces in the area,” the IDF said.
Israelis are forbidden to enter the PA by military order. The two men were questioned by police after undergoing medical examination. Neither sustained serious injury and hospitalization was not required.
Lauding the “act of resistance,” Hamas Spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called for more attacks on Israeli “with force and spread all across the West Bank.”
The Islamist Hamas terrorist group rulers of Gaza, who are committed to the destruction of the Jewish State, condemned their bitter PA rival for rescuing the Israelis.
“The duty of the PA security services is to protect our people from settler attacks and to confront them side by side,” said the Hamas Spokesman, stressing they should not have “safeguarded” the way-wanderers or “return them to the enemy.”
The incident evoked memory for many Israelis of the brutal lynching deaths of IDF reservists Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami on 12 October 2000, who were murdered and mutilated in mob violence while it PA police custody after accidentally entering Ramallah.