Report: Shalit deal terrorist arrested for burglary
After arresting two suspects aged 27 and 17 following reports of robbery in Ra'anana, police discover the former falsified his identity and turned out to be one of the terrorists released in exchange for Gilad Shalit.
Authorities are currently looking into whether he was involved in other incidents of theft in the area.
On Thursday evening, Kfar Saba police received reports about two suspicious individuals on a street in the central city.
After arriving at the scene, they scoured the area in search of the two suspicious individuals, and eventually found the suspects who tried to escape while throwing items onto the street. Police believe the objects were stolen from one of the homes on the street.
After pursuing the two individuals in a brief chase, they were apprehended. The suspects, aged 27 and 17, identified themselves as residents of the city of Tira in central Israel.
However, a deeper investigation revealed that the 27 year old provided a false identity, and that he was in fact named Ali Ashal, a resident of Ramallah, who was one of the more than 1,000 prisoners swapped in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Shalit was held in Hamas captivity in Gaza for five years after being abducted by Hamas in 2006.
It is not the first case in which one of the Shalit deal prisoners has been involved in criminal activity since his release.
Last August, one of the released prisoners was arrested at a building, also in Ra’anana.
He had been sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment after he was convicted of involvement in illegal activity and possession of a weapon.
Seven more Palestinians were also arrested along with him, all of whom were suspected of being in Israel illegally.
After he was arrested in August, the terrorist said during his investigation: “Israel is our land. When we want, we will come in. With all due respect, this is our land. You are the first to say that we need permission.”
(Translated and edited by Alexander J. Apfel)
