 [IsraelTimes] Police announce the arrest of a Palestinian man suspected of digging a tunnel that was supposed to lead from the central West Bank into Israel.
Border Police surveillance identified a group of people digging the tunnel adjacent to the security barrier near the West Bank’s Qalandiya refugee camp, police say. Officers were dispatched to the scene, and as they approached, the diggers fled, according to police.
The officers chased the diggers and managed to catch one, a 36-year-old Qalandiya resident, police say, adding that the officers fired shots during the chase.
In a preliminary investigation, the suspect led officers to the tunnel, where they found “digging implements and many buckets,” and he admitted the tunnel was dug “with the aim of infiltrating the territory of the State of Israel,” police say.
Police add that they expect to detain more suspects. Hebrew media outlets report police are still looking for two other suspects.
According to the reports, the mouth of the tunnel was about 15 meters (50 feet) from the security barrier and was meant to serve as a conduit for Palestinians to illegally enter Israel from the West Bank.
Police had also announced in June that officers arrested a West Bank Palestinian and a resident of East Jerusalem on suspicion of digging a tunnel to either carry out terror attacks or aid the illegal entry of Palestinian workers into Israel.
Following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, Israel all but ended the entry of Palestinian laborers into Israel, gutting a major source of income for the Palestinian economy and leading some to risk crossing the barrier illegally in search for work.
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