Gaza border fence
Photo: Roee Idan
Israeli man indicted for trying to cross into Gaza
IDF soldiers who noticed the 23-year-old Rehovot resident try to cross the border into the strip were able to stop him; he was carrying a backpack with two kitchen knives, clothes and cash money.
A 23-year-old Rehovot resident was indicted on Thursday for attempting to cross the border into the Gaza Strip the previous day.
According to the indictment, the young man was carrying a backpack with two kitchen knives, clothes and cash money.
He made it to the fence near Moshav Netiv HaAsara, where he attempted to cross the border.
Gaza border (Photo: EPA)
An IDF force who identified him hurried toward him, fearing he would be captured by Hamas, and arrested him.
The man was charged in an expedited process with unlawfully trying to leave the country and possessing a knife.
"The defendant imposed a heavy, unnecessary burden on the security forces entrusted with the nation's protection," stated a request to keep him under arrest.
The young man's remand was extended, and he was sent for psychiatric evaluation.
The defendant's lawyer, Ofra Siboni, said, "My client does not belong under arrest behind bars. This is a man whose mental situation was severe and he wasn't trying, heavens forbid, to harm state security."
Three Israelis have voluntarily entered Gaza over the past three years and are believe to be held by Hamas. Abera Mengistu, a young man from Ashkelon, entered the strip in 2014. Three months later, Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin man known to be mentally ill, also crossed the border. Then, last July, a third Israeli citizen crossed into Gaza: Jumaa Ibrahim Abu-Ghanima, also a Bedouin man.
