An Israeli who was severely hurt in a car crash in the West Bank was snatched by Palestinian gunmen while at a hospital in Jenin, his father said Wednesday.
The father told Ynet that Tiran Fero, from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel, was on his way to fix his car in Jenin a day earlier but was caught in a serious car accident. The 18-year-old was then taken in a serious condition to the Ibn Sina hospital, where the Islamic Jihad militants located and abducted him.
"They thought he was an IDF soldier," his father Husam Fero said.
"A gang of armed Islamic Jihad men burst into the hospital and took Tiran's body. They disconnected him from medical equipment while he was still alive," his father said.
"There were some 20 masked men, and had they found out we were Israelis and his parents, they would have kidnapped us as well. We slowly walked away from them and ran, but then we noticed they grabbed my son while he was still alive.
"They also started to shoot in the air, while we were hiding and waiting to be rescued back to Israel. I urge anyone who can help me retrieve my son," he added.
"The Palestinian gunmen might have thought he was a soldier, but Tiran is just a boy, a 12th grader," his Uncle said.
"He was supposed to celebrate his birthday on Thursday, we expect a humanitarian act from the armed Palestinians, and we hope they will return his body so we can bury him in Daliyat al-Karmel, where he was born."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Fero and another Israeli civilian were on their way to Jenin and were involved in the car accident. His friend was rushed to a nearby Israeli checkpoint and transferred to a hospital via a helicopter. While Fero was taken to the hospital in Jenin
"The expectation is that he will be returned to his family in Israel as soon as possible, as a necessary humanitarian measure" the IDF Spokesperson's Unit added.