Man who faked West Bank kidnapping remanded
False report of disappearance of Niv Asraf, 22, sparked massive manhunt in Hebron area
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Friday extended the remand of a Beersheba man who falsified his kidnapping in the West Bank Thursday by five days.
The report of the possible kidnapping of Niv Asraf, 22, was made by his friend, who is also under investigation.
“There is a lot to be angry about this morning,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz told Army Radio Friday morning. “Lots of people who need to be carrying out other security missions left their assignments and switched to this one. Hundreds of soldiers, intelligence people, air force personnel, it really was a concerted effort involving many work hours of soldiers, commanders and Shin Bet personnel.”
The Palestinian Authority also assisted with the search, Channel 1 television news reported.
Asraf was found safe and sound late Thursday and the IDF said the incident was a fabricated report of a potential terror attack. A police statement said he was found near the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, outside Hebron, with a sleeping bag and some canned food. Police said the event was being considered as a “prank” and a massive “waste of resources.”
The search, 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.
“We apologize to all those who helped in the search,” Asraf’s father told the Israeli media on Friday. “I don’t know what’s happening with him. We’re happy he’s back, but we’re worried about his emotional state,” the father said.
After Asraf was found Thursday night, the IDF said that security forces would return to their routine deployments.
Asraf’s friend had called police just after 4 p.m. and reported that he had entered the Palestinian village of Beit Anun and hadn’t returned.
The army set up roadblocks on Route 60, the main north-south artery connecting Jerusalem and Hebron, and Route 35.
According to the account given by the friend, the two men got a flat tire while driving on the road between Kiryat Arba and Beit Anun.
Asraf went to get tools to fix the flat from the nearby Arab village and disappeared, said the friend.
Suspicions were raised after the car was found to have no flat tire and police questioned why the two had stopped where they did.
The car was stopped precisely at the bottom of a path leading into the village.
The TV report said that the friend, a former Border Policeman who had served in the area, had given “at least three versions” of what had happened, and was not considered credible.
It made no sense for the missing man to have chosen to enter a potentially hostile Palestinian village when the entrance to the settlement of Kiryat Arba was only 300 meters away from the spot where their car was stopped, the report added.
Asraf was said to be an employee of the Jewish National Fund, who had started a new job on Wednesday morning. Some Israeli media reports suggested his actions were motivated by a break-up with a girlfriend.
His cousin, named only as “Meir,” had said earlier Thursday night that Asraf had gone to work and then phoned his mother to say he was going to pray at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. “This has hit us like thunder on a clear day… I ask all of Israel to pray for him,” Meir said, “that he should return home safe and well.”
Last June, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped by a Hamas cell at a junction in the Etzion Bloc, north of Wednesday’s incident, and subsequently found murdered. The incident led to a drastic upsurge in tension between Israel and Hamas, ultimately leading to the 50-day Operation Protective Edge conflict last summer.
