After a two-day standoff, the Palestinian terrorists have been forced to return the body of an Israeli Druze they had snatched from a West Bank hospital. On Tuesday, armed men reportedly linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) grabbed the body of a 17-year-old Israeli boy who was brought to a West Bank hospital for emergency surgery from a car crash.
The boy, who was an Israeli national belonging to the Druze minority, “was still alive” when Palestinian gunmen stormed the medical facility and took away his body, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. “He was in critical but stable condition and removing him from the ventilator is what killed him, the father and uncle Hady Ferro claim,” the newspaper wrote, quoting his family members.
Finally, on Thursday, the Palestinian captors were forced to relinquish the body. “Tiran Fero was laid to rest in his hometown in northern Israel on Thursday after Palestinian gunmen returned his body following the kidnapping on Tuesday,” the i24News reported. “The funeral was held later that day in the town of Daliat al-Carmel, a Druze community located on Mount Carmel southwest of Haifa.”
The Palestinian gunmen, demanding the release of convicted terrorists from Israeli prisons in exchange, agreed to release the body only after Israeli Druze held large processions and threatened to enter the Palestinian city of Jenin to recover the body. “Unnamed security officials have said that the suspects are demanding the release of Palestinians imprisoned,” The Times of Israel reported Wednesday.
“Anger over the snatching among Druze Israelis intensified Wednesday night, with thousands attending a protest march and blocking off a major highway near Daliyat al-Karmel,” The Times of Israel added. “More than one member of the community cited by the Walla news site said that if Fero’s body was not returned soon, they may attempt to enter Jenin and retrieve him themselves.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also reportedly vowed to launch a military operation to retrieve the boy’s body. “In the background of the diplomacy was a warning from Israel and the IDF that if the body was not returned, Israel would launch a large-scale operation in the West Bank,” The Times of Israel reported Friday, citing an Israeli media report.
The Jerusalem Post reported the end of the standoff:
Tiran Fero, the Druze teen who was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists in Jenin on Tuesday, was laid to rest in his hometown of Daliat al-Carmel, on Thursday afternoon.The 18-year-old’s funeral was held in the northern Israeli town on Thursday after his body was returned to his family, following 30 hours of negotiations between Israel’s defense establishment and the Palestinian Authority. (…)The negotiations to return the body of the 18-year-old Druze-Israeli came after close to 30 hours of intense talks between Israel’s defense establishment and the Palestinian Authority. His body was transferred at 4 a.m. to his famil in Israel through the Salam Crossing.
Unsurprisingly, the heinous incident transpired in the Palestinian city of Jenin. The city, governed by the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority, has emerged as a stronghold for the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group. PIJ operatives based in Jenin have conducted several deadly terrorist attacks inside Israel in recent months.
With a population of about 140,000, Druze make up less than two percent of Israel’s population. Members of this small minority have distinguished themselves in the Jewish State’s military, social and cultural life.
Unlike other non-Jewish minorities in Israel, Druze, who are of non-Muslim Arab ethnicity, have taken it upon themselves to do mandatory service in the IDF.
The official IDF website states, “[e]ighty percent of the Druze population in Israel drafts into the IDF and among the Druze soldiers who are currently serving, thirty nine percent are in combat roles.”
This is apparently higher than Jewish men’s participation rate in Israel. “Among Israeli Jews, 75% of men and 57% of women currently serve in the military or have served in the past,” according to Pew Research Center in 2016.
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