Four Palestinian Arabs who targeted Israelis living in Judea and Samaria in a series of robberies were arrested following a failed carjacking. The arrests were made public Thursday.
The four are all residents of the town of Kotzra, an Arab town in Samaria that is known as being particularly hostile to Jewish communities in the area.
The four have confessed to a series of crimes, including agricultural theft in the Jordan Valley. The group stole dates from Jewish farmers and sold them in Shechem (Nablus).
They were caught after trying unsuccessfully to steal a car. On October 25, the gang targeted a lone female Israeli driver from the town of Gitit. The would-be thieves cut the Israeli driver off and surrounded her car, then began hitting the driver’s side door with a metal bar while demanding that she get out of the vehicle.
But at that moment the group saw another car approaching, and fled the scene.
One week later, police arrested 28-year-old Adallah Ouda of Kotzra, who confessed to the crime and implicated multiple accomplices. Days later, police arrested a second suspect, 20-year-old Abdel Fatah Hassan, who confessed as well, and implicated others.
On Monday, officers arrested another two suspects: 23-year-old Diya Canaan, and 18-year-old Fares Ouda.
Police noted that the car the suspects used in their attempted carjacking in October has been linked to a similar crime in the region as well.
Police superintendent Dudi Hayoun, head of the Binyamin region police station, said police would continue to crack down on crime rings in the area, “with the goal of protecting the public’s personal safety.”