According to an Israel Radio report on Wednesday, ten IDF combat veterans took part in a daring rescue to release an American woman and her 2.5-year-old child from captivity in PA (Palestinian Authority) Tulkarem. Apparently the woman met the PA resident in the United States, and the two were married and she has been held prisoner in his home. Also living there is the man’s first wife and four children.

Threatening her with arrest from the Shin Bet and that if she left him she would never see her son again, she remained prisoner for the past three years. After diplomatic intervention to the PA failed to result in her release, her parents contacted an IDF combat veteran living in the United States, who in turn contacted colleagues and over the past several weeks, they planned the rescue mission, monitoring the home and the daily routine of those involved to decide on the correct time to make their move. She and her son were extricated, taken to the US Consulate in Jerusalem, and she has already on her way back to the USA, to Ohio.

The participants in the mission were in touch with the US Consulate every step of the way the report adds, but the IDF was not informed. While the family informed the men they will all receive financial remuneration for their assistance, one of the men, Giora, explained this is not the kind of thing one does for money.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)