Police and Shin Bet operatives arrested a Jewish youth from Kfar Tapuach in Shomron on Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses said the youth was not told why he was being arrested, but only that he would be taken to Tel Aviv. Police stated later in the day that he was suspected of involvement in an arson attack on a mosque at Kafr Yasouf in Samaria three weeks ago. He was released shortly after 7:00 PM.
The youth's father and mother were among the early victims of the great wave of terror launched against Israel in 2000, when the youth was a small boy. They were murdered in a gun ambush as they drove in their car at night. The boy's grandfather was murdered by an Arab ten years earlier.
The youth is reportedly denying any involvement, be it direct or indirect, in the mosque attack. Attorney Yehudah Shushan, who represents the youth on behalf of the Chonenu organization, said before the youth's release Thursday that the police did not have enough evidence against him. He stressed that the youth has a clean record and has never been arrested previously.
A nationalist activist who is the boy's uncle reacted to the arrest by saying: “This is a very clear case of harassment. The Shin Bet are obviously clueless on leads to any real suspects so they started fishing around, throwing out a hook hoping to bring in a catch. It is disgraceful that such a well mannered young man is treated so badly by a government that didn't protect his parents from Arab terrorism.”
Security forces have been busy trying to identify and arrest the people involved in the mosque arson at Kafr Yasouf in northern Samaria on December 11. Unknown people entered the mosque in the pre-dawn hours, set alight a carpet and bookshelves, and scrawled some graffiti on the floor in Hebrew promising revenge for Arab terror.