No soldiers hurt; 150-meter long tunnel discovered in Hebron after PA security forces tip off army.
By YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST.COMtunnel 224.88(photo credit: AP)
IDF troops conducting an ambush near Beit El killed a Palestinian who was part of a group of three youths throwing Molotov cocktails on Tuesday.
The force, from the Kfir Brigade's Lavie Battalion, was holding the ambush in light of a proliferation of Molotov cocktail attacks in the area recently. The troops spotted three suspicious figures approaching Beit El, one of them holding a lit Molotov cocktail and preparing to hurl it into the settlement. They opened fire, according to military regulations, killing one of them. No IDF soldiers were hurt in the incident.
An IDF spokeswoman said troops found another 10 fire bombs at the scene ready to be ignited.
The two other terrorists fled the scene.
Also on Tuesday, a 150-meter long tunnel was discovered in Hebron, raising fears in the IDF that Hamas is planning underground terror attacks in the West Bank similar to the ones it has carried out in the Gaza Strip.
While the IDF believes that dozens of tunnels have been dug under the border between Gaza and Egypt, the tunnel discovered in Hebron on Tuesday - large enough for an average size person to stand fully erect inside - was the first time a tunnel was discovered in the West Bank.
Under the direction of Judean Brigade Commander Col. Udi Ben-Muha, IDF troops swept into downtown Hebron on Tuesday after Palestinian security forces informed Israel of the existence of a large tunnel about a dozen meters under the West Bank city. IDF sources praised the Palestinian security forces for informing them of the tunnel although they wondered how long the Palestinians had known of its existence.
The tunnel, the IDF said, had not yet been completed and was found empty. According to one source, it was far from the Jewish community as well as the security barrier and therefore raised speculation regarding its purpose. The tunnel was being dug in the general direction of Road 35 near Turkamiya. The IDF destroyed the tunnel on Tuesday evening.
One possibility, a defense official said, was that the tunnel was being dug by Hamas so its terrorists could move freely throughout the city without being detected by the IDF or Fatah forces. Last year, the IDF discovered underground tunnels during an operation in the Nablus marketplace although none so long or sophisticated.
"We don't know for certain what the tunnel's purpose was," one source said. "It could be for terror purposes although it is strange that it is not near the Jewish community."
Discovery of the tunnel came ahead of the planned deployment later this week of several hundred Palestinian soldiers in Hebron. The move, first reported in The Jerusalem Post last month, has drawn the ire of settlers from Gush Etzion and the South Hebron Hills who called the deployment "irresponsible and dangerous."
The decision to permit the deployment - there are already more than 2,000 Palestinian Authority soldiers and policemen in Hebron - was made last month by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni as part of an Israeli effort to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
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