A fifteen-year-old Palestinian was arrested in 2005 at the entrance to the West Bank city of Nablus after soldiers found an explosive vest in his bag. Image by Getty Images

Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank caught a Palestinian man wearing an explosive belt on Friday, police and the military said, preventing what could have been the first suicide attack in the area for years.

Border police guarding a busy junction near the Palestinian city of Nablus were suspicious about the man who was wearing a coat on a hot day and ordered him to stop, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters.

The man, who was in his 20s and has not yet been named, immediately lay down in the road and raised his shirt to reveal that he was wearing an explosive belt. The device was removed and later detonated by army experts.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“There were 12 steel pipes connected with wires,” Lerner said. “He said he was supposed to activate it. ‘Touch it and activate’ was the wording he used.”

Israel saw a wave of suicide bombings a decade ago during the height of a Palestinian uprising. However, the last such attacks took place in 2008 and Lerner said military intelligence had no indication of any specific threat at present.

“It is a freak incident,” he said, noting that the security forces did not yet know if the man, who came from Nablus and is under interrogation, was affiliated to any militant group.

The incident happened at the Tapuah Junction, just south of Nablus – a particularly sensitive area with a high level of security near a number of Jewish settlements. A settler was killed at the same junction by a Palestinian in April 2013.

U.S.-led peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed last month, and some military analysts have warned of a possible uprising given the lack of any clear way forward to resolve the generations-old conflict.

Although there have been sporadic outbursts of violence in recent weeks, there has been no indication of any widespread or more organized disturbances.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount