Body of Kidnapped Israeli Held by Palestinian Gunmen Returned to Family

The body of an Israeli teenager who was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen from a hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin after his car crashed was returned to his family Thursday. He was finally laid to rest later that day.

Thousands of mourners from the Druze community, to which Tiran Fero (pictured) belonged, participated in his funeral procession in the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel in northern Israel, on what would have been Fero’s 18th birthday.

Fero had been driving with a friend in the city to get his car fixed when they were involved in a traffic accident. His friend was later transferred to Israel for treatment via a military helicopter. Palestinian medical personnel believed it would be too risky to move Fero, so he remained at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin.

The gunmen were duped into thinking Fero was an undercover IDF soldier when they saw the military helicopter and drones, Haaretz reported citing Palestinian officials, and decided to kidnap him.

Fero’s uncle later claimed his nephew was alive prior to the abduction and that a group of 30 gunmen had stormed the hospital, asking for the “boy who had been in a car crash,” before taking him off life support and whisking him off in a waiting car.

“They were shooting in the air and shouting in Arabic… nobody dared to stop them,” Edri Fero told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster. “They disconnected him from the machines and tossed him into a car.”

“We saw them with our own eyes. They were armed, they came as if it was the intifada,” Fero, who was visiting his nephew at the hospital, added.

“If we hadn’t complied, we would have been kidnapped ourselves. We barely escaped and hid somewhere until [Israeli] security forces got us out. We were lucky. It was like a scene from a movie, hard to describe,” he said.

The kidnappers were demanding the release of Palestinian terrorists imprisoned by Israel in exchange for Fero.

Israel did not take part in any exchange for the body, a senior defense source told reporters Thursday morning.

“We held no negotiations with those who were holding the body. We gave nothing in return,” the source said. “We clarified that this body was going back to the family. The Palestinian Authority put pressure to end the saga quickly because it was embarrassed, and in Jenin, the kidnappers lost support after the public understood it would be paying a heavy financial price.”

On Thursday, videos of there Palestinian workers in Israel who were allegedly kidnapped by members of the Druze community were circulating on social media, with a masked man threatening that if Fero’s body was not returned, they would be killed.

A separate video showed members of the Druze community driving to Jenin armed with rifles.

At his funeral, Fero’s uncle Eddy said of the Druze community: “We are a peaceful group.”

“I ask that everyone act peacefully after the funeral. There should be no more lives lost., Let us return to a quiet life,” he said according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The kidnapping came amid a wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis and counter-terrorism raids in Jenin, which has become a terror hub.