Ramallah: A mentally ill Palestinian villager spread chaos in one of the biggest West Bank-based Israeli colonies, Yitzhar, after he entered it unintentionally.
Security forces were put on high alert in Yitzhar, south of the city of Nablus, and a large Israeli military force arrived at the scene after the incursion.
Colonists noticed the man approaching Yitzhar and reported his presence to the colony guards, who in turn demanded the backup of the Israeli military forces.
According to Gassan Doghlous, the Palestinian official in charge of overseeing Israeli colony activities in northern parts of the West Bank, 22-year-old Ahmad Fat’hi Abdul Fattah Al Haj from the village of Jamaeen near Nablus, entered the colony unarmed and it was later proved to the Israeli side that he was not mentally stable.
The highly guarded colony is known to be the toughest in dealing with Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Once the Palestinian mentally disabled man entered the colony, the highest alert was declared in the colony and the Israeli armed forces arrested him,” Doghlous told Gulf News, adding that as soon as the Israelis checked with the man’s family they were informed of his disability.
“The man, who is believed to have committed a serious violation by raiding the colony, was tested by the Israelis who concluded that he was mentally unstable,” he said.
Palestinian officials from the Palestinian-Israeli Security Coordination Liaison Official got involved in the case and provided the Israeli side with documents and certificates proving Ahmad’s mental disability. Following negotiations, the Israelis agreed to release him on condition he is kept indoors.
The West Bank does not have facilities to accommodate mentally ill Palestinians — and so hundreds of them end up confined in their homes and on the streets.
