After a two-hour standoff on Tuesday, IDF troops in Bethlehem arrested Tanzim head Ali Salaha. The suspect gave himself up after soldiers from an elite unit surrounded a building in which he was hiding. During the two-hour standoff, clashes erupted between soldiers and local residents. An IDF officer and a border policeman were lightly wounded by a grenade and by rocks, Israel Radio reported. Palestinians at the scene reported that a 13-year-old boy had been killed by IDF fire, and said that another boy and a woman were wounded. Salaha's arrest comes some three weeks after members of the Border Police's Yamam counter-terrorism unit, operating jointly with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), arrested two Tanzim leaders in Tulkarm who were allegedly behind attempts to manufacture homemade rockets that could be fired at cities in the Sharon region.
Members of the Yamam unit arrested Hassan Ufi and Watar Amara in Tulkarm at the end of August. Ufi and Amara, security officials said, received logistical and financial support from Hizbullah. During the arrest, security forces discovered a large weapons cache including several rockets in the midst of being assembled and several sacks filled with explosives.