Palestinian arrested after smuggling girl over Jerusalem security fence

Israeli security forces on Sunday arrested a Palestinian, 29, suspected of smuggling a small child over the Jerusalem security barrier, after he was filmed tying up the girl with a rope and lowering her to the other side.

Border Police officers detained the suspect, who is facing charges of facilitating illegal entry into Israel’s pre-1967 borders and abusing a minor, in the village of A-Ram, adjacent to Ramallah in Samaria.

“During the operational activity, Border Police entered the village with aerial support from the Border Police’s Rakia unit, which specializes in operating drones and UAVs, and located the suspect outside a business in the village, where he was arrested,” according to a police statement.

“Police emphasize that any attempt to cross the separation fence entails a real danger to life and constitutes a criminal offense under the law, and in some cases it may end in serious injury or loss of life,” it said.

Approximately 40,000 Arabs living in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria enter pre-1967 Israel via the country’s porous security barrier every month, according to official estimates.

While most Palestinians who breach the fence do so in search of employment, others have the goal of gathering intelligence for carrying out terrorist attacks, or to carry out terrorist assaults themselves.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Dec. 29 called for tougher enforcement against Israelis who employ Palestinians illegally.

Smotrich spoke three days after a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Israeli civilians and wounded two others in a series of attacks in and around the northern city of Beit She’an.

The assailant—identified as a 37-year-old who was working illegally in pre-1967 Israel—fled using his employer’s car after the killing spree and was later shot and arrested.

Smotrich urged personal responsibility, warning all Israelis against employing infiltrators. Doing so was not only illegal, he said, but implicated employers in the case of a terrorist attack.

“Do not employ illegal residents,” he said. “This is the murder of Jews.”

He also called for action at the state level. “This is partly the Israel Defense Forces, but mainly the Israel Police, regarding the phenomenon of illegal residents. All of these measures together reduce the risks,” he said.