A Palestinian man rescued five American yeshiva students from a lynch mob in Hebron after they were misdirected by Waze on their way to the Cave of the Patriarchs. Two of the boys were wounded.
A Palestinian man rescued five American yeshiva students who were attacked by a mob after accidentally entering an Arab neighborhood on their way to the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The youths took shelter in his home as their car was pelted with rocks and then firebombed. The car exploded in flames.
The IDF had recently turned over a checkpoint into the neighborhood to the Palestinian Authority.
“We wanted to go to pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs, and on the way we found ourselves in a crowd of Arabs,” one of the students told Israel’s Channel 2. “They started throwing rocks, bricks and stones at the car and when we managed to escape they surrounded us and shouted ‘Jews, Jews.’ Then one of the Arabs came and said, ‘Come with me’.”
The group was spotted by a resident of the Jabal Johar neighborhood, Fayez Abu Hamadia, who hid them in his house.
The IDF turned over a Hebron checkpoint to the PA. (Hadas Parush/FLASH90)
“They were very anxious, one was injured and bleeding from his face. I reassured down. I told them in Hebrew that it will be okay, I gave them water, and I helped the injured man,” Hamadiah told NRG. “I told them they were safe in my house. Immediately afterward they called the police, and I sent teenagers to call the army to take them to the checkpoint.”
“We are all human first and foremost,” Hamadiah told Ynet. “That’s how everyone should behave.”
The students were rescued in a joint operation by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, the IDF, Palestinian security forces, and a police reconnaissance unit.
Representatives of the Jewish community in Hebron noted that the IDF used to maintain a checkpoint at the entrance to Jabal Johar, but turned it over to the Palestinian Authority last week. They called on the IDF to reinstate the checkpoint to prevent such incidents in the future.
By: Sara Abramowicz, United With Israel