Palestinians arrested outside West Bank settlement with gun, ammo

Police arrested three Palestinians Monday outside the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim after finding an automatic weapon and ammunition in their possession.

Officers stopped the suspects’ vehicle, which had no license plates, near the settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The driver and two passengers were questioned and the vehicle was searched, whereupon police found an automatic weapon, magazines for an anti-tank Carl Gustav rifle and other ammunition.

An automatic weapon found by police during a search of a Palestinian car in the West Bank on January 15, 2018. (Police Spokesperson)

The three suspects, from the village of Ubeidiya, were arrested and being questioned by security officials.

Hours later, a group of soldiers arrested a Palestinian man suspected of opening fire at a highway in the northern West Bank, near the Alfei Menashe settlement, the army said.

“After the arrest, the weapon and ammunition were found on the suspect,” the military said in a statement.

Both the suspect and the firearm were handed over to the Shin Bet security service.

A homemade gun that a Palestinian man allegedly used to shoot at cars on a highway in the northern West Bank, near the Alfei Menashe settlement, on January 15, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

Last week an Israeli father of six was gunned down on a West Bank highway outside Nablus.

On Tuesday, shortly before 8 p.m., 35-year-old father of six Rabbi Raziel Shevach was driving in his car on the highway near his home in the Havat Gilad outpost when shots were fired at him from a passing car. Shevach, a volunteer medic, was shot in the neck, but managed to call his wife and tell her to call an ambulance. Civilian and military medics rushed to the scene and tried to stop the bleeding as they took him to Kfar Saba’s Meir Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after life-saving efforts failed.