Police are holding two Israeli soldiers arrested over the weekend in connection with a cache of weapons and explosives found on the roof of the Yeshivat Hakotel in the Old City. A warrant officer (the top rank of noncommissioned officer) was detained last Friday and a corporal was taken into custody Saturday. Their names have not been mode public, but neither was said to have any connection with the religious school.
Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari, principal of the yeshiva, summoned police last Thursday after students reported seeing two young uniformed men carrying boxes to the roof. The boxes were found to contain 100 kilograms of high explosives, 15 hand grenades, 14 rifle grenades and a variety of fuses and detonators. An investigation established that the arms were stolen from the military base where the warrant officer served.
The purpose of the cache was not clear. But the authorities assume that they were intended for acts of sabotage against the Arab population in retaliation for the terrorist ambush killings of six yeshiva students in Hebron on May 2. According to the police, their investigation has found no connection between the two men detained and any other persons.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
