Palestinian security services said they arrested a man overnight Thursday wanted for involvement in a Aug. 18 shooting that left two Palestinian policemen killed, concluding a widespread manhunt for multiple gunmen in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The shooting launched a massive security crackdown in Nablus’ Old City, during which three suspects were killed by security forces -- one of whom was beaten to death in prison after his arrest -- in what the UN and Palestinian factions branded “extrajudicial executions.”
In a statement on his Facebook page, spokesperson for the Palestinian security services Adnan Dmeiri identified the suspect arrested overnight as Salah al-Kurdi, saying that all those wanted over the shooting had now been apprehended.
After two Palestinian policemen were fatally shot and two others injured by locals during clashes in the Old City of Nablus, the following day, Palestinian policemen shot and killed two suspects during an arrest campaign to apprehend the shooters.
Last Sunday, three further suspects were apprehended in Nablus, two of which were identified by Dmeiri as Wail Hani Halaweh and Ali Halaweh, with Dmeiri saying at the time six further suspects for the shooting were being pursued.
On Tuesday, Palestinian security forces arrested the suspected “mastermind” behind the shooting,Ahmed Izz Halaweh, a senior member of the armed wing of the Fatah movement the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, took him into custody, and beat him to death.
Dmeiri added in his statement Friday morning that “security forces had previously arrested Sabri al-Kurdi, Sameh al-Kurdi, Saleh al-Kurdi, and Jadallah Jadallah, who were accomplices in the crime and had admitted to committing the crime.”
Dmeiri seemed to refer to those arrested Tuesday when Palestinians police entered Area C of the occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem, in a highly unusual move to carry out arrests without coordinating with the Israeli army in an area officially under full Israeli military control.
The deadly manhunt came amid an already large-scale campaign by Palestinian security forces to arrest Palestinians engaged in criminal activity and seize weaponry in the occupied West Bank.
