Israeli security forces rescued a group of Israeli civilians who entered the Palestinian city of Qalqilya in northern Samaria on Monday, in what the military said was a dangerous and illegal incursion into Area A.
The Israel Defense Forces said that “a short while ago, a report was received regarding several Israeli civilians who intentionally entered the area of Qalqilya.”
Soldiers and Border Police officers were dispatched to the city, where they “contacted the civilians and located them” before extracting them from the area, the military said.
The IDF stressed that entry by Israeli civilians into Area A, which is under full Palestinian Authority control, is dangerous and prohibited by law.
According to reporting by Ynet, 10 Israeli Jewish civilians were rescued after driving into Qalqilya on Monday evening in an effort to locate a motorcycle that had been stolen from them.
Police officials said a lynching was narrowly averted when Palestinians gathered around the Israelis and their vehicles.
Ynet reported that Civil Administration officers spoke by phone with one of the Israelis after receiving a report of Palestinians crowding around him, but he refused to leave the city and told officers, “I’m not leaving Qalqilya without the motorcycle.” The man, known to security forces, was also extracted from Qalqilya by the Civil Administration in a similar incident the previous Saturday, the outlet said.
