Eleven Palestinian Arab terror suspects were arrested in a security sweep overnight and in the early morning hours Tuesday (Sept. 8) in Judea and Samaria, including three in Nebi Saleh.
IDF soldiers arrested a member of the Hamas terror organization in the Samaria Arab village of Marca, southwest of Jenin. A second Hamas member was picked up in Fahama, and a third was taken into custody in Silwad, northeast of the Palestinian Authority capital city of Ramallah.
A fourth Hamas member was arrested in the Judean village of Al-Khader, west of Bethlehem.
Two Hamas members were taken into custody in an area southwest of Hebron as well: one fugitive was arrested in Al-Fawer, and another was picked up in the village of Rabud.
In addition, five more suspects who did not have ties to any recognized terrorist organizations were arrested for terrorist activity as well.
One of the suspects was arrested in the city of Bethlehem, a few minutes south of Jerusalem. Another was taken into custody in Beit Lakiya, southwest of Ramallah.
Three other suspects were arrested in Nebi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah, where choreographed rioting and demonstrations take place every Friday.
Recently a clash made headlines when an IDF soldier was attacked by a Palestinian Arab family which has begun to make a new career out of baiting IDF soldiers before the cameras.
The family succeeded in drawing the soldier into a confrontation, and the cameras filmed the entire fiasco. The resulting photos were sent around the world, showing an Israeli soldier holding a “poor Palestinian Arab child with a broken arm” in a headlock.
A gallery of camera crews and foreign activists are always on hand to provide still photos and specially edited film footage of such clashes to media outlets around the world that provide a carefully slanted picture of “poor” Palestinian Arabs being “abused” by IDF soldiers.
Sadly, the story and photos, which exclude the provocations and violence by the Palestinian Arabs from whom the soldiers must defend themselves and others, are generally accepted without question around the world.
In this case, the aforementioned soldier was beaten around the head with a rock and a heavy metal object, which can be seen in the extended footage at the beginning of the clip but is never shown in the photos that were sent out to international media, of course.
He was also tackled, punched and slapped by three large adult women and one adult man, as well as bitten by a strong Arab girl approximately age 15 but who is dressed in “little girl” tee shirts on camera with her golden hair in braids. Israeli blog Israellycool has nicknamed her “Shirley Temper” because she often shows up as the “angry little innocent” in provocations against IDF soldiers.
It is also not clear whether the 12-year-old boy that the obviously inexperienced IDF soldier tried to arrest – who had been throwing rocks at Israelis — actually had a broken arm.
More to the point, the soldier was also hampered by the issue of what he was allowed to do to free himself, and what he was not allowed to do under army regulations — and international pressure — regarding how far he could go in harming others while trying to keep himself safe.