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Israeli forces thwart 27 attempts to kidnap their soldiers

February 14, 2014 at 9:13 am

Israeli occupation forces have claimed that they have prevented 27 kidnapping attempts of their soldiers since the beginning of this year Ha’aretz reported on Friday.

The newspaper reports that newly released data reveals that the first kidnapping attempt that took place this year was similar to a previous one that took place last year in 2012.

Israeli forces are worried about the kidnapping of their soldiers on the Israel-Syrian borders, where there is current unrest. Leaders are afraid of attacks similar to those that were carried out against UNIFIL troops last March.


The newspaper claimed that the Israeli forces were most worried because these attempts were carried out by Hamas members.

According to a senior official in the Israeli forces, who preferred to remain unknown, Palestinian militants were more eager to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to swap them with Palestinians in Israeli jails. “We have to stay on alert as long as there are such attempts,” he said.

The data reported by the newspaper showed that the Israeli forces had thwarted an attempt to kidnap an Israeli soldier during the Rosh Hashanah celebration. The attempt had been planned by Islamic Jihad members.

The newspaper claimed that some of the attempts were thwarted during the planning stages, whilst others were not prevented until much later.

In order to test the preparedness of their soldiers, Israeli forces have been testing them and recommending that they patrol in groups.

Leaders of the forces have issued orders to confront any kidnapping attempts and asked the soldiers to carry out replicas of such attempts in order to test their readiness.

A number of procedures have been suggested, including not travelling alone by public transport on the highways.