Three Palestinians from the Chevron area who were working in Israel illegally were arrested on Wednesday a few meters from Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich.

Smotrich was speaking at an urban renewal conference at the InterContinental David Hotel in Tel Aviv—and according to a report on Channel 12 News, the discovery of the infiltrators and their arrest unfolded during his speech.

As Smotrich was talking, police officers assisting the Magen Unit (responsible for ministers’ security) in securing the event entered the hall and spotted the three Arabs, standing and talking in Arabic in close proximity to Smotrich. Their presence aroused the officers’ suspicion, and upon questioning them, they discovered they were in Israel illegally.

An initial investigation revealed that the three Arabs, employed by an event management company that set up the stage for the event, succeeded in bypassing all of the Magen Unit’s security layers on the way to the stage.

The police confirmed the security failure on Thursday, with a statement from the police spokesperson stating that “during officers’ preparations to secure an event that took place in a hotel in the center of Tel Aviv, the police officers noticed the three suspects who were present in the hall and aroused their suspicion.”

“During questioning, they claimed to be residents of Yaffo, but it turned out that they were residents of Chevron and Beit Awwa and were in Israel illegally.

“During a quick investigation at the scene, the police officers located their employer—a 27-year-old resident of Kafr Qassem—who is suspected of employing them through an external company in the hotel industry.”

The three Palestinians were imprisoned at the end of their investigation. They were brought to the Magistrate’s Court in Tel Aviv on Thursday, and the judge agreed to the police’s request to extend their arrest.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)