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Photo: Reuters
Suspicion: East Jerusalem cell kidnapped kids to PA
Seven residents of Shoafat refugee camp arrested for allegedly operating illegally in east Jerusalem, kidnapping children into Palestinian territories; Jewish man suspected of selling ammunition to cell members
Jerusalem Police suspect that a branch of the Palestinian Authority police has been operating illegally in east Jerusalem and has even kidnapped people, including children, into the Palestinian territories. The affair was cleared for publication Monday.
Seven residents of the Shoafat refugee camp were arrested in connection with the affair about two weeks ago, as was a Jewish citizen from a community near Jerusalem, suspected of selling ammunition to the cell.
An investigation revealed that the suspects would identify themselves as PA police officers, as well as threaten and kidnap east Jerusalem residents and take them into questioning at the police headquarters in Ramallah.
Chief Inspector Yosef Aharon, the Jerusalem police's investigating officer, told Ynet that the undercover investigation was launched following information received by the police, adding that the cell members were tasked with resolving disputes and dealing with illicit affairs.
Fatah's secretary-general
Last month the cell members allegedly pulled over a Christian Arab woman in north Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood, took her two children, aged five and nine, out of the vehicle and kidnapped them to Ramallah, where the family of the woman's late husband resides.
The children were transferred to the governor's residence and were later returned to their mother only after she agreed to sign a document securing the family's visitation rights.
During a search of one of the suspect's homes police found a seal used to mark the documents indicating that the man was Fatah's secretary-general in the Shoafat refugee camp.
The Palestinian Authority is strictly forbidden from carrying out any activity in Israeli-controlled east Jerusalem.
According to Chief Inspector Aharon, the investigation has revealed that a Jewish man would regularly purchase thousands of bullets from stores in the capital and then sell the ammunition to the cell members.
