TULKARM (PIC)– More than 50000 Palestinian citizens in the West Bank city of Tulkarm were besieged by large numbers of IOF troops backed by tens of military vehicles and apache choppers in search for an alleged kidnapped settler who was later found to be relaxing at his home Palestinian sources affirmed.
According to the sources the IOF troops installed several roadblocks at the city’s entrances and on roads leading to it for all directions seizing and searching hundreds of Palestinian vehicles in addition to deploying tens of IOF troops at the city’s hills and mountains on alleged reports that an Israeli settler was kidnapped in the city.
The IOF troops’ measures increased tension in the city as tens of thousands of its inhabitants were blocked from leaving homes or accessing their workplaces and schools and hundreds of Palestinian cars were stranded at the IOF checkpoints for several hours before those troops lifted the siege after they found the said settler sitting at his home.
Hebrew sources quoted IOF sources as alleging that the measure was spurred by reports on possible Palestinian kidnapping of the settler after his personal cellular phone was found in the city.
Although the sources acknowledged lack of information on how the phone reached the city Palestinian sources opined that the phone might have accidentally fallen from the settler’s car while driving through one of the city’s roads usually frequented by Israeli motorists.
Other sources suggested that the settler was at odds with his wife and wanted to make her believe that he was kidnapped at the hands of the Palestinians.
