PA police fire on undercover IDF unit in Bethlehem

Palestinian policemen opened fire at undercover Israel Defense Forces soldiers during an operation in Bethlehem yesterday.

No soldiers were hurt during the incident, and the IDF said its inquiry revealed that no policemen were hurt. However, the Palestinians said one policeman was wounded.

According to the army's initial inquiry, the Palestinian police had not been informed about the army operation. Thus, when the soldiers, who were disguised to look like Arabs, came to arrest a wanted man not far from City Hall, the policemen took them for members of an armed Palestinian gang. They opened fire almost immediately after the soldiers got out of their car. In response, the soldiers fired warning shots into the air until an IDF backup force that was waiting nearby rushed to the scene and rescued them.

Bethlehem police commander Issa Hejo claimed the Israelis opened fire first, as they neared a Palestinian checkpoint.

According to army sources, the standard procedure for informing the Palestinians of an IDF presence in a Palestinian city is to notify them as soon as the soldiers arrive. However, the soldiers had no time to conduct the standard notification procedure because the policemen opened fire immediately, the sources said.

They added that the possibility of Palestinian policemen firing at soldiers is taken into account any time an undercover operation is authorized.

The sources praised the soldiers' behavior, saying their decision to fire in the air rather than back at the policemen had prevented a far more serious clash.

They also said that Israel completely accepts the policemen's explanation that they thought they were shooting at an armed Palestinian gang. "It's hard to believe the Palestinian policemen would have acted similarly had they known this was an IDF force," said one.

In another development yesterday, the IDF and the Shin Bet security service arrested Ashraf Awidat, an Islamic Jihad operative from Jenin, who is suspected of involvement in last month's suicide bombing in Hadera, which killed six Israelis. Defense sources said Awidat, 19, had been planning another attack inside Israel when he was arrested.

According to the army and the Shin Bet, Awidat served as an aide to Iyad Abu Rub, the head of the Islamic Jihad network in Jenin, who was arrested by the IDF several days ago. He is suspected of recruiting suicide bombers for the network.

Awidat was found hiding in a dormitory belonging to the American University. The dormitory is located in the village of Zababda, south of Jenin.