Two IDF soldiers, one of whom was a young man and another a young woman, inadvertently entered the Palestinian city of Jenin on Monday in an IDF vehicle and were attacked by Arab residents. A rifle, which they did not use to defend themselves, was stolen, and the Palestinians who threw stones at the vehicle pulled the soldiers out and beat them.

The office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in the IDF that oversees activities in Judea and Samaria, arranged the transfer of the two soldiers with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA brought the two soldiers to the Jalameh crossing, where they were met by Magen David Adom (MDA) medical teams. The IDF is currently negotiating with the PA on the return of the stolen weapon.

A YouTube video taken at the beginning of the incident shows that the vehicle stopped and the two soldiers speaking calmly with PA security personnel. The male soldier who is an officer was unarmed. The female had an M16 on her lap with no magazine in the gun.

Several videos filmed shortly thereafter and subsequently posted on social media show a crowd attacking the vehicle with the female soldier’s hysterical screams heard.

شرطة السلطة الفلسطينية تنقذ جنديين صهيونيين (مجند ومجندة) بعد أن حاصر شبان فلسطينيين غاضين سيارتهما في مدينة #جنين وأصابوهما بجروح وغنموا سلاح احدهما.!#ثائرون_فلسطينيون pic.twitter.com/JHae5dPEF1

— AlAA (@0i3__) February 12, 2018

A photo posted on Twitter of the female soldier as she is returned to the IDF shows her covered in blood.

صورة: إصابة مجندة إسرائيلية بعد ضربها على يد فلسطينيين واغتنام سلاحها في مدينة جنين، قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/uWdXYc44z0

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 12, 2018

PA Police chief Hazem Attallah told the Jerusalem Post that the PA security forces have handed over 564 Israelis who accidentally drove into Palestinian towns, between January 1 and November 8 of last year.

The incident on Monday is somewhat reminiscent to an  incident in 2000 in which two IDF reservists inadvertently arrived at a PA police roadblock at the entrance to the city of Ramallah. The two soldiers were taken into custody by the PA police and transported to the PA police station. Palestinian residents stormed the station, killing the two soldiers and displaying their mutilated bodies in the city center.