Israeli security dog helps nab Palestinian terrorists without help from humans

Set loose by her human partner, Nala took down three men by herself after they snuck into the village of Tzur Yitzhak.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Nala the security dog helped nab a group of Palestinian infiltrators who had snuck into the village of Tzur Yitzhak Friday, taking down three of them all by herself.

Five men altogether illegally crossed through the security fence from Qalqilya, a nearby Palestinian-controlled city in Samaria.

When they entered the outskirts of the village of some 7,000 residents around 7 a.m. Friday, the monitoring systems sent out an alarm.

N., who is Tzur Yitzhak’s security coordinator, jumped into his car with his four-legged partner, and dashed to the scene on a dirt road in the village.

In a video clip posted to social media, three men dressed in black can be seen walking when they suddenly veer aside through a gap in a wall and start running, after looking down the road. A man – N. – pulls up, jumps out, opens the back hatch to let his dog out and they start their chase.

Nala stopped three men on her own, allowing N. to arrest them, while two others fled in a different direction. They were caught by two-legged security responders. All of the suspects were brought to the authorities for questioning.

It is not yet known if the Palestinians were on their way to commit an attack or had more benign intentions, such as coming in search of work.

N. told Israel National News that it can be a difficult task to find infiltrators, who find it easy to enter from Palestinian-controlled territory.

‘‘Because our city has a forest, there are lots of places they can hide from security forces,” he said. “They wait until they think they’re alone, cut holes in the fence, and come in. Some have criminal records or are wanted by the ISA [Shabak]. Every one of them must be considered a terrorist until we have thoroughly searched him and determined that he is not a threat.’’

Nala was trained by the Israel Dog Unit (IDU), a civilian, volunteer organization that prepares several breeds of man’s best friend to do such vital tasks as searching for missing persons, rescuing those stranded in out-of-the-way places, and security work.

The IDU teaches the handlers as well, and N. praised the group for turning him and Nala into a well-oiled team.

“When I came to the IDU, the training team there helped me focus my efforts on the security work that I would be doing most of the time,” he explained. “We began massive rounds of training, and that helped get me used to working with Nala in security situations and taught Nala how to pursue and engage suspects as she did on Friday. I owe a lot to the IDU.”

Tzur Yitzhak is considered part of the Southern Sharon region. It was founded in 2007 and named for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.