Soldiers nab would-be Molotov cocktail thrower

Israeli combat intelligence soldiers arrested a would-be Molotov cocktail thrower early Tuesday morning as he approached a West Bank highway, but two others escaped, the army said.

The Palestinian suspect and his two accomplices had been spotted by a soldier monitoring a surveillance camera near al-Khader, outside Bethlehem.

A video of the incident showed two of the suspects approaching the Route 60 highway, while a third remained behind.

As they got close to the wall that protects the highway, a group of four soldiers from the Nitzan Battalion of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, who had been positioned nearby to thwart such attacks, arrived at the scene.

The soldiers captured one of the suspects and handed him over to police, but the other two fled, the army said.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, IDF troops uncovered weapons caches and confiscated “thousands of shekels” that the army said was to be used to fund terrorist activities.

Following a reported weapons deal in the Jabal Juhar neighborhood of Hebron, Israeli troops swept the area and found a sniper rifle, ammunition and magazines hidden under a planter outside a house in the neighborhood, the army said.

Soldiers also located and confiscated two shotguns and a pistol in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the IDF said.

Troops seized funds that were allegedly going to be used to fund terror in Idna, outside of Hebron, and in Ni’lin, Harbata and Qibya, north of Modiin.

The money and guns were handed over to the Shin Bet security service for further investigation.

Some 10 Palestinian suspects from across the West Bank were also arrested early Tuesday morning. Six of them were picked up for throwing rocks and taking part in violent protests, while the remaining four were arrested for allegedly belonging to the Hamas terrorist group, the army said.