Yarom's jeep after tires punctured
Yarom's jeep after tires puncturedIDF Spokesperson

Police say they have made an arrest in connection with yesterday's incident in which unknown assailants slashed the tires of a jeep belonging to the IDF's Samaria Brigade Commander in the town of Yitzhar in Samaria (Shomron).

The suspect is currently a student at a yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, but is believed to originally hail from Yitzhar.

Condemnations poured in yesterday after Colonel Yoav Yarom's tires were slashed, with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon branding the act "terrorism".

The incident is believed to have been carried out by locals angered by an incident last week in which security forces tore down a house that was built by Avi and Shoshana Lazar – just days before they were due to move in with their five children.

The residents said that the land the home was built on so-called "survey land," which would have become state land in a matter of a few years, and was carried out "for no reason." The house stood on an area of 125 square meters and was worth about 500,000 shekels, or $140,000.

One of the residents of Kipa Sruga Hill was said to have been beaten and handcuffed during the demolition.

A spokesperson for Yitzhar also condemned the incident, but said it was "impossible to ignore the proximity" between the two incidents.

"Opposite the flat tires of the Brigade Commander stands the destroyed and desolated house. We urge the security forces to do what is required of them to lower the flames."

The tires of Yarom's vehicle were slashed in a similar attack in January.