Suspected Palestinian car thief smashes through Ben Gurion Airport entry gate
West Bank resident, 17, arrested on suspicion of stealing car in Holon, then ramming entry checkpoint at Ben Gurion Airport, prompting guards to open fire; no injuries reported
A suspected Palestinian car thief was arrested overnight Saturday after crashing a stolen vehicle through the entrance of Ben Gurion Airport, prompting guards to open fire in response, Israel Police said in a statement.
It was the second such incident in a month.
Police and airport security guards later arrested the suspect, 17, a resident of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Police said he had had illegally entered Israel. There were no injuries reported in the incident.
The driver had “endangered guards and other road users,” police said in a statement Sunday.
The airport was put on lockdown during the time the suspect was on the loose, according to protocol.
“This is another serious incident of a thwarted attempt to harm the security forces by a resident of the West Bank, who entered Israel in violation of the law through the breached fence, that poses a real risk to the property and safety of the public,” police said.
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Police said the suspect stole a car from the central region city of Holon. Guards at the airport noticed the car as it approached and then rammed through the checkpoint. Airport security responded by firing shots and deploying roadblocks further along the access road.
The suspect will be brought to a courthouse Sunday for an extension of his remand as necessary, the police statement said.
In an almost identical incident on September 22, a Palestinian driver rammed a stolen vehicle through a security barrier at Ben Gurion Airport, causing no injuries.
There have been other similar incidents. In 2013, two Palestinians in a speeding truck penetrated the first security barrier at the airport before security forces were able stop the vehicle and arrest them.
During an interrogation, the men, who hailed from the West Bank cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, claimed that they were car thieves, and that they had just stolen the truck in the nearby town of Beit Dagan. They said that they entered the airport road by accident and panicked when they saw the Israeli security personnel.
