Court Extends Custody of PA Security Figure in IDF Soldier Kidnapping Probe

Ynet reported at 09:05 IDT, and Behadrei Haredim updated at 09:32, that police arrested Walid Farukh, a 49-year-old Palestinian Authority resident who works in the PA security service, on suspicion of abducting an active-duty IDF soldier into PA territory in a criminally motivated case. Investigators suspect Farukh and another man seized the soldier in Beersheba while he was in uniform, handcuffed and blindfolded him, moved him into the territories, threatened him, then left him bound and bruised in an open area before he returned to Israel via Palestinian police. The Beersheba Magistrate's Court extended Farukh's detention by four days; Hakol Hayehudi's earlier report identified the suspect as a senior PA intelligence figure in the Hebron area. Israel should press the case firmly, because any attack on a soldier by a PA security figure crosses a dangerous line even when investigators describe a criminal motive.