Gunman panic in embassy standoff

Palestinian in Turkish Embassy "threatened to blow up building."

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, BEN HARTMAN
Turkish Embassy 311 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Turkish Embassy 311
(photo credit: Channel 10)
A Palestinian man gained entry to the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, claimed he was armed and demanded safe passage to Ankara, before being wounded by a gunshot apparently fired by embassy security staff.
The man has been named as Nadim Injaz of Ramallah.
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Police said he had been involved in a similar incident at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv in 2006.
Injaz threatened to use a firearm and flammable liquids, according to reports, before being shot in the leg and lightly wounded by embassy security staff.
Police counter-terrorism forces and Magen David Adom paramedics converged outside the building, but were not allowed entry by press time on Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry attempted to coordinate assistance to the embassy.
Conflicting reports emerged about Injaz’s identity and background following the incident. An associate of his told Israel Radio that the suspect feared he was being pursued by Israeli and Palestinian intelligence services because, he believed, he had information that could “bring down several senior Palestinian Authority officials.”
Channel 2 first claimed Injaz was a former collaborator with Israel from Ramallah whom the Shin Bet had pressured to kill Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. Because he had refused to do so, he claimed, the Shin Bet had been seeking his demise.
Recently, the agency left him at a West Bank crossing point, but he refused to cross into PA-controlled territory, fearing he would be killed, Channel 2 reported. However, the media outlet later said the suspect’s claims were baseless.
Channel 2 played what it said was a recording of him telephoning its reporter earlier Tuesday from inside the Turkish Embassy, where he had gone to seek asylum. He said in the call that he had taken two people hostage and was threatening to blow up the embassy, claiming he had explosives with him.
Sounding emotionally unstable, he denounced “the murderous Jews,” the “murderous Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas],” and other “corrupt” Palestinian leaders who he said were stealing money from the Palestinian people.
He then urged Turkey to save him.
Outside the embassy on Tuesday evening, police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo said the man had arrived at the embassy, passed a security check outside, and been admitted into the building. Some time after that, a single shot was heard from inside.
“As far as we know, he was shot in the leg.
At the moment, the Turkish Embassy staff is refusing any sort of help,” Toledo added.
Over a dozen police vehicles and dozens of officers, including a contingent of riot police, patrolled outside the embassy on Rehov Hayarkon.