Soldier files fake kidnapping report

An IDF soldier reported on Tuesday that he had been kidnapped, causing police to rush to his rescue — only to discover that he had made up the abduction.

The soldier, who serves on the Tzrifin base near Tel Aviv, was already in trouble following an earlier court martial, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday. An army psychologist assessed that the soldier was mentally fit to serve his sentence, but before he could be incarcerated he fled the base.

Shortly afterward, the soldier made a phone call to his base and claimed that a man had tied him up and forced him into a car. The soldier then hung up the phone.

The IDF immediately reported the abduction to the police, who swung into action and began tracing the soldier via his mobile phone transmissions. The soldier was soon located on a bus in north Tel Aviv and taken for questioning.

The incident came as the IDF is in the midst of Operation Brother’s Keeper to rescue three Israeli teenagers kidnapped earlier this month in the West Bank. Thousands of soldiers have searched the West Bank city of Hebron and the surrounding region in an effort to locate the teens. Over 350 Palestinians, most of them members of Hamas, have been arrested as soldiers conduct house to house searches for the abducted Israelis.