Swift action by the IDF led to to the capture of a terrorist just hours after he had fired a burst of bullets at a car carrying a Jewish couple Sunday night. The captive is Mohanned Mahmoud Azza, 34, of Bethlehem.
A senior military source said the terrorist was caught as a result of “a successful chase by soldiers from the Nachshon Battalion and the antiaircraft array, which made the terrorist's escape more difficult.”
The tracking-down of terrorist shooters immediately after an attack is rare. Usually, the gunmen manage to escape under cover of the night and are only caught a long time after their crime, through intelligence operations. This was not the case yesterday.
An IDF investigation has determined that at about 9:00 PM, Azza fired at an Israeli-licensed vehicle on the road from Har Gilo, northeast of Bethlehem, to Jerusalem. He managed to fire a single burst of automatic fire, from which one bullet struck the car, hurting no one. He then immediately attempted to escape, and managed to cover a considerable distance in a short time.
"We flooded the area with forces,” the military source said. “We identified his tracks and the forces followed them. Because of the magnitude of the force he was forced to change the route of his escape to a more difficult one.”
"We found him after three and a half hours in one of the ravines, on a steep cliff incline. The terrorist had been hiding amongst the bushes, but once he saw the force moving toward him he put up his hands.”
The terrorist is currently under interrogation. It is not yet clear of he acted alone or was part of a group.
The IDF stressed that the Palestinian Authority security forces were not part of the investigation.