Palestinian suspect taken into custody after weapons stash found in home

Arrest comes hours after Molotov cocktail was thrown at entrance of Jewish settlement by resident of same Arab village.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
A weapons stash found at the home of an Abu Dis resident. (photo credit: Courtesy of police)
A weapons stash found at the home of an Abu Dis resident.
(photo credit: Courtesy of police)
Within several hours Tuesday night, a firebomb was thrown outside Ma’aleh Adumim and a Palestinian man from an adjacent town was arrested for storing an arsenal of weapons.
According to police, on Tuesday at approximately 10 p.m. the firebomb was thrown by a resident of Abu Dis at the Ma’aleh Adumim junction outside of Jerusalem. Border Police units quickly arrived at the scene, but the perpetrator had fled.
In a separate incident several hours later, police arrested a Palestinian man from Abu Dis who was storing a cache of weapons in his home, including a homemade pipe bomb and an 84mm. rifle with more than 100 rounds.
While police waited for a bomb squad to disarm the explosive, the suspect, aged 38, was arrested and taken to the Ma’aleh Adumim police station for interrogation. He is to be arraigned at Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Thursday morning, police said.
Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Wednesday that the arrest followed an ongoing investigation.
Asked if police consider the suspect a terrorist, Rosenfeld said he could not disclose details of the case, but added that “all directions are being looked into.”