Israeli man apologizes for ‘disappearing’ in West Bank

An Israeli man who is suspected of staging his own disappearance in the West Bank last week apologized Monday “for everything that happened,” and cited his debts to “well-known criminals” as the motive that prompted him to run away.

Speaking at a press conference shortly after he was released from prison, Beersheba resident Niv Asraf, 22, claimed he had been harassed and threatened by criminals and that he filed numerous complaints with police, but was ignored. Police subsequently rejected the claim and said Asraf had never turned to them for help.

“I received a phone call from which I knew there was no turning back,” Asraf said. “I’d rather disappear than be done in.” Asraf added that “if I’d really wanted to fabricate a kidnapping, no one would have found me.”

He went on to accuse police of negligence, saying “what has the Israel Police come to that I need to run away to the [Palestinian] territories? I’m not a kid who gets involved with such things. I’m used to transporting prisoners [during military service], not to having handcuffs on my own hands, but I’d prefer that over being buried in a prayer shawl [as is customary in Jewish tradition].”

The 22-year-old owed hundreds of thousands of shekels to the mob for sports bets, according to earlier reports.

Asraf said he was willing to offer his help as an agent to bring the people he alleges harassed him to justice.

Police on Monday opposed a court decision to release Asraf, and Eran Nagaoker, a soldier and accomplice to Asraf’s staged disappearance, as the two were released without an interim period of house arrest.

Police intend to file an indictment against Asraf later this week, maintaining that his account of events to the media on Monday differs from his testimony during his interrogation.

“These claims lack a factual basis. There is no registry of a complaint by Asraf at the Beersheba police accounts, and if he would have filed a complaint it would have been handled appropriately,” an official statement by the Beersheba police read.

Regarding Asraf’s proposal to work as an agent, police officials said that “since this relates to intelligence aspects that include the matter of personal privacy and immunity, we cannot comment at this time.”

Asraf’s disappearance last Thursday, near the area of the West Bank where three Israeli teenagers were abducted and killed less than a year ago, sent hundreds of soldiers, police and agents of the Shin Bet security agency on a massive house-to-house manhunt in Palestinian villages around Hebron.

The operation, which took several hours, cost the state several million shekels, police said. Helicopters were deployed, war rooms set up and massive forces mobilized for the search.

Both men are suspected of giving false evidence, breach of public order and obstruction to a police officer in the performance of his duty.

The Palestinian Authority also assisted in the search, Channel 1 television news reported.

Nagauker called police just after 4 p.m. on Thursday and reported that Asraf had entered the Palestinian village of Beit Anun and hadn’t returned.

The village became the focal point of the Israeli search, with troops flooding the area searching homes and fields. The army also set up roadblocks on Route 60, the main north-south artery connecting Jerusalem and Hebron, and Route 35.

According to the account given by Nagauker, the two men got a flat tire while driving on the road between the settlement of Kiryat Arba and Beit Anun.

Asraf went to get tools to fix the flat from the nearby Arab village and disappeared, he said.

However, Asraf was found safe and sound in a nearby valley late Thursday with a sleeping bag and some canned food. Police said the event was a “prank” and a massive “waste of resources.”