Israeli forces arrest jewel thieves posing as soldiers in West Bank

Israeli forces arrested two Israelis and a Palestinian on Tuesday who allegedly posed as soldiers to rob a jewelry shop in the southern occupied West Bank, the military and police said.

Officers arrested the suspects "while they were allegedly fleeing the scene of an armed robbery carried out at a jewelry store in the town of Dahariya," Israeli police said in a statement.

It added that the suspects had arrived in the Palestinian town "in a vehicle resembling a security vehicle, including emergency lights, while wearing (Israeli military)-style uniforms, protective vests, helmets, and carrying firearms".

The suspects were arrested in a joint operation involving Israeli police, border police, and military forces after being located in the town of Samu'a near the West Bank's southern border with Israel, the police said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

The police said that the three suspects were Bedouins from southern Israel, while the military in a separate statement said that the three included "a Palestinian and two Israeli civilians".

Bedouins are a semi-nomadic Arab people who, among other places, live in Israel and the West Bank, and therefore are sometimes Palestinian and sometimes Israeli citizens.