IDF Sergeant Tomer Hazan Kidnapped and Murdered in West Bank

He got lured away to his death?

At the Times of Israel, "IDF soldier Tomer Hazan, 20, kidnapped and killed in West Bank":

An IDF soldier was murdered by a Palestinian acquaintance who lured him to a village near Qalqilya in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said Saturday. The soldier was named Saturday night as 20-year-old Bat Yam native Sgt. Tomer Hazan.

Hazan, a sergeant in Israel Air Force, was lured on Friday to the village of Beit Amin, south of Qalqilya, by a 42-year-old Palestinian resident of the village, Nidal Amar. Amar worked illegally at an Israeli restaurant, in Bat Yam, where Hazan also worked part-time.

Amar was arrested and confessed to killing Hazan, the Shin Bet security service said.

According to the Shin Bet, Amar recounted how he picked up Hazan in a taxi on Friday after convincing him to accept a ride. He took the Israeli to an open field, killed him and threw his body in a well, the agency said.

Israeli forces raided Amar’s home early Saturday and interrogated Amar and his brother.

Relatives seen near the house of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan in the coastal city of Bat Yam in central Israel on September 21, 2013 (Photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

The Shin Bet said Amar confessed to intending to trade Hazan’s body for the release of another brother, a member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been serving time in an Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in several terror attacks, including planning a suicide bombing by a female bomber that was thwarted.

Amar showed the Israeli forces where Hazan’s body was hidden. The agency did now say how Amar convinced the soldier to join him on the ride Friday.

More at that top link.

And at the New York Times, "Israeli Soldier Is Lured to West Bank and Killed":

The kidnapping of soldiers in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most Jews, is among the most profound fears for Israelis. In late 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier who had been abducted five years before by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military recently reported a sharp rise in Palestinian plots to kidnap soldiers in hopes of trading them for some of the 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. A total of 37 such plans have been thwarted so far this year, more than in all of 2012, according to Colonel Lerner.

Israel released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners last month, and is expected to release about 75 more in three phases, as part of the Washington-brokered peace talks that started this summer. Right-wing politicians who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state seized on the killing to bolster their argument.

“One does not make peace with terrorists who throw soldiers’ bodies into a hole in the ground,” Naftali Bennett, an Israeli minister, said Saturday. “One fights them without mercy.”

Well, yeah.

Also at Ynet, "IDF soldier's murder: Shin Bet's race against time."

HAT TIP: Israel Matzav, "Angry protesters outside restaurant that hired IDF soldier's killer."