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Circumstances Unclear in Reports of Missing Israeli in West Bank
Report of Missing Israeli in West Bank Proves to Be Hoax
(about 5 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces carried out extensive searches in the Hebron area of the West Bank on Thursday after an Israeli man was reported missing, raising fears that he had been kidnapped or killed.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military called off extensive searches in the Hebron area of the West Bank late Thursday night after initial reports that an Israeli man had been abducted by Palestinians proved to be a hoax.
But the circumstances remained very unclear, and questions were being raised about the reliability of the initial information provided by the man who reported his friend missing.
The Israeli police said that the man they had been searching for, Niv Asraf, 22, was found in a valley in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron, equipped with canned food and a sleeping bag.
The Israeli military and the police said the searches were focused on the Palestinian village of Beit Anoun, north of Hebron. The Israeli news media said the missing man, whose name was not released, was last seen entering the village.
“The ‘missing’ man and his friends staged a kidnapping,” the police said in a statement, adding that the episode was being investigated and that those responsible would face the consequences, given the waste of resources and the delicate security situation in the West Bank.
Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police, said an Israeli man had called the emergency police number, 100, in the late afternoon and said he and a friend had been driving when their car got a flat tire. The missing man had said he was going to find assistance and tools, but did not return, his friend told the police.
Earlier Thursday, the police said an Israeli man had called the emergency police number, 100, and said that he and Mr. Asraf had a flat tire and that Mr. Asraf had gone to find assistance and tools in the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Anoun, north of Hebron, but did not return.
Many Israelis still have fresh memories of the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the Hebron area last June. The event traumatized the country and set off a much broader Israeli-Palestinian confrontation involving an Israeli crackdown on Hamas, the Islamic militant group that dominates Gaza; intensifying rocket fire against Israel from Gaza; and a 50-day war between Israel and the militant groups in Gaza.
Yet questions were soon raised about the reliability of the information provided by the man who reported Mr. Asraf missing. The Israeli news media said Mr. Asraf, a resident of Beersheba, in southern Israel, had left his cellphone in the car. Israeli television also said that the car the men had been traveling in did not have a flat tire.
Many Israelis still have fresh memories of the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the Hebron area last June. The event traumatized the country and set off a much broader Israeli-Palestinian confrontation involving an Israeli crackdown on Hamas, the Islamic militant group that dominates the Gaza Strip. Rocket fire from Gaza intensified, and that led to a 50-day war between Israel and the militant groups in Gaza.
The three teenagers were lured into a car while hitchhiking and were fatally shot soon after. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave 18 days later. The Israeli security forces later arrested and charged members of a Hebron squad affiliated with Hamas.
The three teenagers were lured into a car while hitchhiking and were fatally shot soon after. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave 18 days later. The Israeli security forces later arrested and charged members of a Hebron squad affiliated with Hamas.
But the preliminary reports about Thursday’s episode appeared to suggest a different kind of event and raised puzzling questions about the circumstances. The Israeli news media said the missing man, said to be a 22-year-old resident of Beersheba, in southern Israel, had left his cellphone in the car, making it harder for the security forces to find him. Israeli television also said that the car the men had been traveling in did not have a flat tire and that it was unclear why the missing man had entered the Palestinian village.
Mr. Rosenfeld, the police spokesman, could not immediately confirm those details.
As darkness fell, Israeli television showed soldiers searching cars on the main roads around Hebron and said house-to-house searches were underway in nearby villages.
The Israeli news media said Palestinian security forces were helping with the search. A Palestinian security official said he had no information about the case and the area in question was under Israeli security control.
Relatives of the missing man told Israeli television that he had left home that morning to start a new job with the Jewish National Fund, a large Israeli nonprofit organization, and that they did not know what he was doing in the Hebron area.
Diaa Hadid and Irit Pazner Garshowitz contributed reporting.
