Two settlers arrested for threatening Palestinians

Police arrest two residents of the Efrat settlement in the West Bank for threatening a group of Palestinians with what was later revealed to be fake pistols last week.

The two Jewish Israelis, ages 19 and 22, were riding motorcycles near the West Bank settlement on May 11. They rode past a Palestinian vehicle and forced the driver off the road, police say.

The pair then used the plastic pistols to stop a passing Palestinian bus and threaten the occupants, the police’s West Bank division says.

One of the two Israelis “put the pistol next to the head” of one of the Palestinians and told him to “start praying for his life,” police says.

Another Palestinian in the group filed a complaint with the Hebron Police Department, which “immediately opened an investigation into the incident and arrested the two suspects in just a few hours,” a spokesperson says.

When the two Israeli suspects handed over the pistols used in the attack, police discovered that they were made of plastic and were not real guns.

The two men will be held in remand at least until tomorrow, according to a Jerusalem court order.

— Judah Ari Gross