Police Find East Jerusalem Man Dead in Bethlehem Valley

Police found the body of an east Jerusalem resident in his 40s in the Wadi Rahal area near Bethlehem on Monday.

Officers, forensic investigators, and IDF soldiers secured the location and gathered evidence. Police said initial findings point to a criminal cause rather than a terror motive. The body goes to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute to establish how the man died.

Three suspects were detained during military activity in Bethlehem on Sunday night. One is a Palestinian West Bank resident police describe as affiliated with Hamas. Forces searched his home and that of another Bethlehem resident suspected of keeping weapons. They seized a loaded hunting rifle, IDF uniforms, and what a police statement called "various technological items." The two were taken to the Ma'ale Adumim station on weapons and unauthorized military equipment charges. Near Hebron, a man in his 30s was arrested with a hunting rifle and a large quantity of ammunition.

In Kalansuwa, a majority-Arab city in central Israel, police and Border Police recovered weapons stolen from the IDF and arrested two people. A search of an open area yielded one Kalashnikov rifle, three M-16 assault rifles, eight handguns, six fragmentation grenades, two stun grenades, three tactical vests, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. A police explosives expert handled the grenades. Police said the operation belongs to an initiative to reduce violent crime in the Arab sector. The investigation continues.

In Rahat over the weekend, police working to locate illegal weapons found a man in his 30s with his leg shackled to a home floor. Police freed him. Preliminary findings say his family chained him over his drug use. His brother, a Rahat resident, was arrested and taken to the Rahat station for questioning.

The body of the east Jerusalem man is being transferred to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute to determine the cause of death.