Jerusalem, 25 June 2001
Two participants in October 12 Ramallah lynching arrested
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
The ISA and IDF Central Command units recently arrested two
Ramallah-area residents suspected of active involvement in the
lynching of two IDF reservists at the Ramallah police station on
October 12, 2000.
The two were arrested in the framework of the ISA's search for
those suspected of participating in the double murder. One of the
detainees is the young man who was photographed waving his bloody
hands during the lynching.
Aziz Salha, 20, from the village of Dir Jarir admitted during
questioning to being the youth photographed with the blood of the
victims on his hands. He said that when the rumor spread that
there were two IDF reservists at the Ramallah police station, an
inflamed mob burst through the gate and entered the station.
Salha admitted to being one of those who broke into the station,
to having gone up to the room where the soldiers were being held,
and to choking one of the soldiers while others beat him. When he
saw that his hands were covered with blood, he went to the window
and showed his hands to the mob below.
The second detainee is Tanzim activist Muhammad Nuara, 18, from
Mazra'a Kabalya, near Ramallah. Nuara also admitted to breaking
into the station, to having gone up to the room where the
soldiers were being held, and to participating in the murder by
stabbing one of the soldiers.
Fifteen suspected participants in the lynching have so far been
detained; most of them are in the process of being committed to
trial.
The ISA will continue to locate and arrest those who participated
in the Ramallah lynching until all such participants will have
been apprehended.