Kidnapped Israeli woman lured to Jericho, gang-raped by Palestinians

The victim, a new immigrant to Israel, says she was lured to the Palestinian Authority city of Jericho, held captive and gang-raped – a phenomenon some warn has become common in the area.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli woman who was rescued from a Palestinian Authority-administered city Friday night says she was lured to the area on false pretenses and then gang-raped by eight Palestinian men.

On Friday, Israeli forces working in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority’s internal security apparatus rescued an Israeli woman from the city of Jericho after she was taken there against her will and held captive.

Palestinian Authority police officers located the woman after she called Israeli authorities and later transferred her to the IDF, which returned her to Israel.

Since then, new details have emerged, including the circumstances surrounding how the woman ended up in a Palestinian Authority city and what occurred while she was held captive.

The victim, a resident of the northern town of Nof HaGalil (formerly known as Natzrat Illit, or Upper Nazareth), has been identified as a new immigrant to Israel in her 40s and the mother of an IDF soldier.

Speaking with police after her rescue, the woman said that she had agreed to meet with a man with whom she had been texting, with plans to visit a villa. Prior to meeting him, the victim believed the man was Jewish.

“At first I didn’t want to meet, but eventually I agreed, and he sent me a location. I initially thought he was Jewish. Only later did I discover he was Palestinian,” she said, according to Arutz Sheva.

After meeting at an agreed-upon location, the man drove her to the outskirts of Jericho.

The victim said she was initially unaware she was being driven to a Palestinian Authority-administered town, explaining that she was unfamiliar with the area and is not fluent in Hebrew.

Upon their arrival, the woman said, she was forced out of the car and ambushed by a group of men, who forced her at gunpoint into an apartment.

Eight Palestinian men, including the man who had lured her there, proceeded to brutally gang-rape her and threatened to murder her.

Her attackers prevented her from leaving the apartment, but she managed to leave the room where she was raped, call a friend and file a complaint with police at approximately 6 p.m.

After she placed the calls, more Palestinian men came to the apartment prior to her rescue, the woman said.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration used her last known cellphone location to direct Palestinian Authority police officers to the apartment where she was being held.

The woman was extracted from the apartment and handed over to IDF forces.

After undergoing a medical exam and making a statement to Israeli police, the woman returned home to rest.

On Saturday, Israeli police raided the apartment where the incident occurred to gather evidence.

According to a report by Israel’s Channel 14, five of the suspects involved in the assault have been arrested and are being held by the Palestinian Authority police department.

Elchanan Gruner, a reporter for HaKol HaYehudi who broke key details of the story Saturday night, said that the rape in Jericho was not an isolated incident, noting that many villas on the outskirts of Jericho are used to carry out sexual assaults or to serve as brothels housing young women in distress, including many Israeli Jewish women.

“On the outskirts of Jericho there are many villas that are often used as brothels, places where young women—many of them Jewish—are raped. Some of these villas are owned by Arab Israeli citizens or residents of eastern Jerusalem,” Gruner wrote on Saturday night.

Police emphasize that they have not ruled out nationalistic motives for the sexual assault, and are examining all possible angles in the investigation.