Man arrested for alleged kidnapping attempt in Tiberias; terror motive suspected

An Arab Israeli man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of the attempted kidnapping of a woman in the northern city of Tiberias, police said, adding that the motive was suspected to be terror.

Police said the woman in her twenties reported that a man tried to force her into his vehicle on David Remez Street in the city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

A short time later, police said officers arrested a 51-year-old man from the northern Arab village of Yafia, on a nearby road in Tiberias.

Police said that after an initial interrogation of the man, they suspected the kidnapping attempt was “nationalistic” in motivation — meaning a terror attack.

“I was walking innocently on my way and was going by a car when he simply opened the back door and tried to push me from his side toward the car,” she told Channel 12 news.

Surveillance camera footage of the incident showed the suspect grabbing the young woman as she approached his car. The woman falls over as she escapes his grasp, then runs away.

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She said when she screamed the suspect stopped grabbing her and said it had been a mistake. After she ran away from the scene, he headed into a nearby hardware store and she called the police, she said.

“The second he left the store I told the cop to help quickly because he is going to escape,” the woman told the channel.

Due to the apparent circumstances of the attempted kidnapping, police handed the the suspect over to the Shin Bet security agency for further questioning.

Earlier this year, a man was arrested in connection with a suspected attempt to abduct a teenage girl in the northern town of Pardes Hanna, though in that case, police ruled out a terror motive.

Tuesday’s incident came on election day, and as tensions were running high following a series of attacks by Palestinians against civilians and security forces in the West Bank in recent weeks.

The military has imposed a closure on border crossings between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip during election day, and has deployed additional troops to the southern West Bank and the area surrounding Jerusalem.

Such closures are standard practice during festivals and holidays, in what the military says is a preventative measure against attacks at those times, which are seen as periods of increased tension.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.