June 26, 2001
ISA And IDF Arrest Two More Participants In October 12 Ramallah Lynch (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

The ISA and IDF Central Command units recently arrested two Ramallah-area residents suspected of active involvement in the lynching of two IDF reservists at the Ramallah police station on October 12, 2000.

The two were arrested in the framework of the ISA's search for those suspected of participating in the double murder. One of the detainees is the young man who was photographed waving his bloody hands during the lynching.

Aziz Salha, 20, from the village of Dir Jarir admitted during questioning to being the youth photographed with the blood of the victims on his hands. He said that when the rumor spread that there were two IDF reservists at the Ramallah police station, an inflamed mob burst through the gate and entered the station. Salha admitted to being one of those who broke into the station, to having gone up to the room where the soldiers were being held, and to choking one of the soldiers while others beat him. When he saw that his hands were covered with blood, he went to the window and showed his hands to the mob below.

The second detainee is Tanzim activist Muhammad Nuara, 18, from Mazra'a Kabalya, near Ramallah. Nuara also admitted to breaking into the station, to having gone up to the room where the soldiers were being held, and to participating in the murder by stabbing one of the soldiers.

Fifteen suspected participants in the lynching have so far been detained; most of them are in the process of being committed to trial.

The ISA will continue to locate and arrest those who participated in the Ramallah lynching until all such participants will have been apprehended.