Settlers arrested for threatening Palestinians with plastic guns

Police on Monday arrested two residents of the West Bank settlement of Efrat for threatening a group of Palestinians with what later turned out to have been fake pistols.

According to suspicions, last week, the two, aged 19 and 22, were riding motorcycles near the Bethlehem-area settlement. They drove past a Palestinian vehicle and forced the driver off the road, police said in a statement.

The pair then used the plastic pistols to pull over a passing Palestinian bus and proceeded to threaten the occupants.

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

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,” Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

It was only when the two Israeli suspects handed over the pistols that police discovered they were made of plastic.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court remanded both suspects into custody until Tuesday.