Booby trapped car pulled over at checkpoint during Operation Protective Edge.
Photo: Police Spokesman's Unit
Police data shows spike in number of attempted attacks through checkpoints
New data published by police shows rise in criminal activity at Israeli checkpoints - ranging from individuals set to carry out attacks to infiltrators; 32 million people have crossed Israeli checkpoints in the past year.
New data published on Thursday, gathered by police, shows a stark rise in attempts to carry out attacks via Israel's checkpoints.
According to data presented Thursday morning by Chief Military Police Officer Brigadier General Golan Maimon and the battalion commander in charge of the Erez border crossing, Lieutenant Colonel Gil Maimon, 14 people on their way to carry out an attack in Israeli territory were arrested in 2014, compared to four the year before.
Criminal incidents at Israeli checkpoints.
The data released showed that 32 million people had crossed Israel's checkpoints in the past year. The 2014 report revealed that there was an 8 percent rise in infiltrator arrests, and 66 percent rise in arrests related to finding weapons such as guns, rifles and ammunition.
There was a 21 percent rise in catching false IDs and a 55 percent rise in catching illegal residents, along with a 70 percent rise in arrests of drivers who drove illegal residents. Moreover, there was an 11 percent increase in finding Palestinians who were posing as Israeli Arabs.
During the video presentation led by the police, photographs of Palestinians hiding in vehicles in order to cross into Israel were shown – some even hid in the engine compartment.
Regarding the treatment of soldiers by police, it was noted that among IDF soldiers who were jailed in Israel in 2014, eight percent were tried for criminal offenses, 21 percent for disciplinary offenses and 71 percent for absence (desertion or evasion) from military service.
The report also revealed that 129 violent incidents were dealt with by military police inside military prisons as well as 23 drug related offense, 31 incidents of self-harm, 29 incidents of hospitalization and 16 hunger strikes.
Furthermore, in all of 2014, some 4,098 criminal cases were opened by the military police.
The presentation by the police also focused on sexual offenses and their prevention. A total of 62 cases were opened for physical offenses, 28 for verbal abuse, 27 for 'peeking Tom' offences and eight for rape.
