Israeli police officers apprehended a resident of Khan Yunis in Gaza on Wednesday following a pursuit on the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The 27-year-old suspect had stolen a motorcycle in Tel Aviv and was on his way to the capital city on Route 1, arousing suspicions that he planned to flee to a Palestinian town in Judea or Samaria, Israel Hayom reported on Thursday.
After officers pulled the motorcycle over, they found burglary tools, gloves and other suspicious items, Israel Hayom said. Police added that the suspect, who did not hold a valid driver’s license, was taken for questioning, while the motorcycle was returned to its rightful owner.
It was unclear when and how the suspect managed to enter the Jewish state from Khan Yunis, the Hamas terror stronghold where the Israel Defense Forces has been mounting a massive military assault.
Some 3,000 terrorists infiltrated Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 as part of Hamas’s Oct. 7 murder spree, in addition to scores of Gaza residents who crossed the border fence that day. Israeli security forces killed around a thousand of the terrorists and captured many others.
In October, Israeli security forces arrested four Gazans who were hiding in Beersheva, approximately 25 miles from Gaza. Another Palestinian was caught near the city of Netivot, about eight miles from the Strip.
That same month, a Hamas terrorist who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre was caught while trying to return to Gaza. The member of the Nukhba commando forces that led the attack on northwestern Negev communities was exhausted after spending two weeks on the run, the IDF said.
In early November, police arrested 11 Palestinians from Gaza on suspicion of illegally residing in Israel during a raid of the Al-Makassed Hospital on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. One of the detained individuals was the sister of a Hamas operative, according to police.
Less than a month before the Oct. 7 attacks, a Palestinian from Jabalia in northern Gaza was arrested at the Tel Aviv Savidor Central railway station while in possession of a 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) butcher’s knife. The suspect had a permit to work in Israel.
A day later, another Gaza resident was arrested at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. The suspect was detained after security guards identified two knives hidden in his bag using scanners at the entrance to the facility.
