IDF: One of Joseph’s Tomb’s shooters had terror past

Army spokesman quick to add that the shooting did not appear to have been a planned terrorist attack.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Palestinian Authority police 311 (R) (photo credit: Mohamad Torokman / Reuters)
Palestinian Authority police 311 (R)
(photo credit: Mohamad Torokman / Reuters)
One of the Palestinian policemen who opened fire and killed Ben-Yosef Livnat, who illegally entered Nablus last month, has a terrorist background, IDF sources said on Wednesday.
However, an army spokesman was quick to add that the shooting did not appear to have been a planned terrorist attack.
Livnat, 25, was fatally wounded by a Palestinian Authority policeman who shot at a group of Breslav hassidim on their way to prayer at Joseph’s Tomb, on the outskirts of Nablus. Four other worshipers were wounded.
The group entered Nablus without coordinating the visit with the IDF, as stipulated by law. Nablus is in Area A, territory under full PA control, and therefore off limits to Israeli Jews.
The four policemen were immediately placed under arrest by the PA, which is continuing to investigate the shooting.
IDF sources said that while the investigation was ongoing, according to the findings collected by the Central Command, it did not appear that the policemen planned the shooting, and that they were simply waiting for Israelis to enter Nablus.
The investigation is expected to last several more weeks.