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Israeli Soldier Is Lured to West Bank and Killed Israeli Soldier Is Lured to West Bank and Killed
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man lured an Israeli soldier he worked with at a restaurant to the West Bank on Friday, then killed him in hopes of using the body as leverage to lobby for the release of his brother from an Israeli prison, military officials said Saturday. JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man lured an Israeli soldier he worked with at a sandwich shop outside Tel Aviv to the West Bank on Friday, and killed him in hopes of using the body as leverage to lobby for the release of his brother from an Israeli prison, military officials said Saturday.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the Palestinian, Nidal Ammar, 42, had confessed to the crime after being arrested early Saturday along with another brother and six others. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the Palestinian, Nidal Omar, confessed to the crime after being arrested early Saturday along with seven others.
Colonel Lerner said that Mr. Ammar knew the 20-year-old soldier, Sgt. Tomer Hazan, because they had worked together in a restaurant in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. Mr. Ammar had picked the soldier up in a taxi Friday in Israel and taken him first to a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and then persuaded him to go to the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Amin, where Mr. Ammar lived, Colonel Lerner said. The closeness of the relationship between Mr. Omar, 42, and the 20-year-old soldier, Sgt. Tomer Hazan, remained unclear late Saturday, but the owner of the shop in Bat Yam where they worked said in a television interview that both men were well liked. Colonel Lerner said Mr. Omar had persuaded Mr. Hazan to go with him in a taxi Friday from Israel to a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and then to Beit Amin, a nearby Palestinian village of 1,100 where his family is from.
Mr. Ammar then took Sergeant Hazan to an open area nearby, killed him, and hid his body in a water cistern, according to Colonel Lerner, who said Mr. Ammar “wanted to barter with the dead body.” Mr. Omar then took Sergeant Hazan to an open area, killed him, and hid his body in a water cistern, according to Colonel Lerner, who said Mr. Omar “wanted to barter with the dead body.” Colonel Lerner did not say how the soldier had died.
It was unclear Saturday afternoon how Mr. Ammar persuaded Sergeant Hazan to go with him, or what kind of relationship they had. Colonel Lerner said Mr. Ammar was married to an Israeli citizen but had no permit to be in Israel. Since the second intifada a decade ago and Israel’s subsequent building of a barrier separating it from most of the West Bank, Israeli travel into Palestinian villages is relatively uncommon. The news heightened tensions even as the Palestinians and Israelis have entered peace talks.
The kidnapping of soldiers in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most Jews, is among the most profound fears for Israelis, and is seen by some Palestinian militants as a powerful tactic. Nothing similar has occurred in several years, Colonel Lerner said. Mr. Omar’s relatives said he is married to an Israeli citizen, lives in the Arab-Israeli town of Jaljulia with her and their eight children, and had earned about $2,500 a month serving shwarma in the Bat Yam shop for the past four years. But Colonel Lerner said Mr. Omar did not have the permit required to work or stay in Israel.
The most notorious recent abduction was that of Gilad Shalit, who was taken by Hamas through underground tunnels across the border from Israel into the Gaza Strip in 2006. He was held for five years before being released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in 2011. On Saturday night, several hundred people protested outside the sandwich shop against Palestinians working illegally in Israel, some of them shouting, “Death to Arabs.”
Some 4,500 Palestinians serving time in Israeli jails for security offenses are widely seen as political prisoners — and heroes — by their families and communities. Israel recently released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners as part of renewed peace talks brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry. Since the second intifada a decade ago and Israel’s subsequent building of a barrier separating it from most of the West Bank, Israeli travel into Palestinian villages is relatively uncommon. Colonel Lerner said the authorities are investigating how Mr. Omar persuaded Mr. Hazan to go with him.
Colonel Lerner said that Mr. Ammar’s imprisoned brother, Nur ad-Din Ammar, had been incarcerated since 2003 and was a member of the Tanzim militia, an offshoot of the Palestinian Fatah faction founded in 1995. He did not detail the crimes Mr. Ammar was accused of, nor say whether there had been any recent development in his case that might have spurred his brother to act. The kidnapping of soldiers in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most Jews, is among the most profound fears for Israelis. In late 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier who had been abducted five years before by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.
Colonel Lerner did not say how Sergeant Hazan was killed. The Israeli military recently reported a sharp rise in Palestinian plots to kidnap soldiers in hopes of trading them for some of the 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. A total of 37 such plans have been thwarted so far this year, more than in all of 2012, according to Colonel Lerner.
The soldier’s family informed Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, that he was missing about 10 p.m. Friday, according to a military news release. An investigation immediately followed involving a large number of intelligence officers and military officials, Colonel Lerner said, and who by Saturday morning stormed Beit Amin, a village of about 1,100 people not far over the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. Israel released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners last month, and is expected to release about 75 more in three phases, as part of the Washington-brokered peace talks that started this summer. Right-wing politicians who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state seized on the killing to bolster their argument.
Within hours, Mr. Ammar led the authorities to the body and confessed, the colonel said. “One does not make peace with terrorists who throw soldiers’ bodies into a hole in the ground,” Naftali Bennett, an Israeli minister, said Saturday. “One fights them without mercy.”
Colonel Lerner said that Mr. Omar’s imprisoned brother, Nur ad-Din Omar, had been incarcerated since 2003 and was a member of the Tanzim militia, an offshoot of the Fatah faction.
Another brother, Mahmoud Abdullah Omar, said he was serving a 30-year sentence for a shooting that injured some Israel soldiers.
Sergeant Hazan was in a noncombat job in the Air Force and worked part time at the sandwich shop. His Facebook page, filled Saturday with condolences, showed photos of him at parties and pools.
“He was like my son, there’s no other boy like him,” the restaurant owner said on Israel’s Channel 2 news. Of Mr. Omar, the owner — who was not identified — said: “He was on good terms with everyone. Nice as can be.”
The military said Mr. Hazan’s family reported him missing at 10 p.m. Friday, prompting an investigation. Mr. Omar’s mother said many Israeli soldiers with three dogs arrived at 3 a.m. Saturday, and stayed until 4 p.m. Six Omar brothers were arrested, she said.
“I condemn what he did a million times,” said Mahmoud Omar, who was not among those arrested. “He ruined our lives.”

Said Ghazali reported from Beit Amin, West Bank, and Carol Sutherland and Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem.