7 Givat Ze’ev security guards arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into Israel

Police have arrested seven security guards employed by the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze’ev who are suspected of facilitating the illegal entry of workers into the town and beyond.

The arrests, announced by police and reported by Israeli media early Monday, took place over the course of the past week. The seven guards are accused of allowing illegal workers into the community in exchange for bribes.

Givat Ze’ev is just north of Jerusalem, and the suspects were employed by a private security agency that works for the settlement, Hebrew media report. The guards allegedly used their access to its security systems to allow people to enter illegally from elsewhere in the West Bank.

The arrests were prompted by a complaint from the Givat Ze’ev Local Council, whose chair, Yossi Asraf, said he viewed the allegations with the “utmost severity.”

“We have a basic faith in the security system, and any harm done to it is unforgivable,” he said in a statement.