JERUSALEM: Israeli forces arrested two Israelis and a Palestinian on Tuesday after they allegedly posed as soldiers to rob a jewelry shop in the occupied West Bank, the military and police said.
Officers arrested the suspects “while they were allegedly fleeing the scene of an armed robbery carried out at a jewelry store in the town of Dahariya” in the territory’s south, Israeli police said in a statement.
It added that the suspects had arrived in the Palestinian town “in a vehicle resembling a security vehicle, including emergency lights, while wearing (Israeli military)-style uniforms, protective vests, helmets, and carrying firearms.”
Dahariya mayor Akram Abu Alan told AFP that at around 10:30 am (0830 GMT), a group of individuals “got out of a vehicle wearing Israeli army uniforms and carrying weapons.”
“Posing as soldiers, they stormed a gold shop, stole large quantities of gold, threatened civilians, and damaged parts of the shop,” he said.
Abu Alan said the individuals were arrested about an hour later and that the stolen items were recovered.
The suspects were picked up in a joint operation involving Israeli police, border police and military forces after being located in the town of Samu’a, near the West Bank’s southern border with Israel, the police said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
The police said the three suspects were Bedouins from southern Israel, while the military in a separate statement said they were “a Palestinian and two Israeli civilians.”
Bedouins are a semi-nomadic Arab people who, among other places, live in Israel and the West Bank, and therefore are sometimes Palestinian and sometimes Israeli citizens.
Israeli forces arrest jewel thieves posing as soldiers in West Bank
https://arab.news/5cgxz
Israeli forces arrest jewel thieves posing as soldiers in West Bank
- The suspects had arrived in the Palestinian town “in a vehicle resembling a security vehicle”
- Abu Alan said the individuals were arrested about an hour later and that the stolen items were recovered
UN rights chief shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
