המסתערבים עוצרים את גנבי הנשק הבדואים

An indictment was filed on Wednesday at Be'er Sheva's District Court against three Bedouin who stole a soldier's weapon at the Beit Kama Junction last week.

The three, who are all residents of the Bedouin village of Lakiya, were identified as Saari Abu Iyaash, Salimaan Abu Iyaash, and an additional minor. They were charged with robbery in extreme circumstances, weapons crimes, changing the identification of a vehicle, and attempting to disrupt legal proceedings.

All three are relatives, two of them brothers.

According to the indictment, a day before the incident Saari decided to steal a weapon from an IDF soldier in order to sell it for the sum of 20,000 NIS ($5614). On the day of the robbery, Saari told Salimaan about his plan, and Salimaan agreed to contact him and help him out, in exchange for a fee of 1000 NIS ($281).

Saari took his brother's car, a bead gun which looked real, three headscarves from his sisters to cover his face, and gloves. He traveled with Salimaan to the gas station at Beit Kama Junction, where the two scanned the area for an appropriate place to rob an IDF soldier of his weapon.

Afterwards, the two traveled towards the Palestinian Authority city of ad-Dhahiriya, where they received Israeli license plates before returning to pick up Saari's younger brother from the Shoket Junction. The three then traveled towards the Lahav Forest, where they switched their plates for the Israeli plates and equipped themselves with scarves and gloves.

Saari then suggested his younger brother join him and Salimaan in robbing the soldier, and offered him a sum of 1000 NIS, after which the minor agreed to join him.

The three then traveled to Beit Kama, approaching the junction at around 6:30p.m. and covering their faces with the scarves. Circling the area, they noticed IDF soldiers at the nearby gas station, but did not approach them since there were many soldiers and the area was equipped with security cameras.

They then turned towards a local McDonald's, and noted a soldier carrying both a weapon and a magazine. They drove towards him on the shoulder of the road before stopping next to him.

Salimaan and the minor exited the vehicle, running towards the IDF soldier masked and wearing gloves. When the soldier saw them, he loaded his weapon and they began to fight him. At this point, Saari exited the vehicle, pointed his gun at the soldier, and hit his head with it. The three worked to remove the strap by which the soldier's weapons was hanging on his body, and one of the threatened him and insisted he hand the weapon over.

The three then pushed the soldier onto the ground, and after a fight managed to grab his weapon and run to their vehicle with it.

The soldier stood up and ran towards the Bedouin thieves, grabbing the vehicle's left rear door, yanking it, and even managing to open it, but the thieves began driving, escaping the area quickly via a dirt road near Kibbutz Beit Kama.

Soon afterwards, the vehicle overturned and the thieves escaped it with the weapon in hand. Saari hid the weapon and some of the equipment in another location, and the three Bedouin hid for several hours before returning home.

That same day, Saari destroyed his phone's memory card, and the next day, he told his younger brother to get rid of his cell phone, since they were being tracked. In response, the minor gave Saari his cell phone.

Parallel to the indictment, the prosecutor ordered the three to remain under arrest until completion of legal proceedings against them.