Truck driver abducted, robbed in West Bank

Truck driver Danny Asulin from Kiryat Motzkin left his home on Tuesday for a routine day at work, but the day ended with abduction into the West Bank, the theft of his truck and hours of anxiety.

Asulin, 46, married and father of four had just completed a drive to southern Israel when he received a phone call from the trucking company where he is employed. "There's a manufactory in the Beersheba area that is interested in working with us," he was told by his supervisor. "Take the phone number and coordinate, they want you to transfer goods now."

The innocent call turned out to be the first step in what was set to become a nightmare which miraculously ended peacefully. Asulin called the number and spoke to a man who identified himself as 'Mousa' and who gave him directions to a meeting point. Asulin waited until a man in a baseball cap arrived and joined him in the truck.

"After a few minutes of driving he told me to stop on the side of the road," Asulin told Ynet. "I asked where the site was and he answered that someone would come along and open the gate. Half an hour later an olive green Mitsubishi with Palestinian plates arrived and three large scary hooded figures came out and dragged me out of my truck."

He was thrown into the car where one of the figures held him and covered his head with a black sack. Asulin realized that he had been kidnapped. "They started driving and held my head down so that I wouldn't be seen," he noted. "It was a 90 minute drive and I saw the angel of death right in front of me.

'I wouldn't come out alive'

"They spoke half in Hebrew and half in Arabic, whispering quietly about a road block. Apparently they were scared of driving on the main road so they stuck to side roads… I thought I wouldn't see my wife and kids ever again."

The kidnappers waited until the truck was out of reach of Israeli police should someone file a complaint and lead authorities to stop the truck at a crossing. At one stage, Asulin's employer wondered what was keeping Asulin so he called him: "They asked me who Maor was. I answered and they told me to answer and tell him I was waiting for the fork-lift. They said if I gave him hints I wouldn't come out alive."

Eventually Asulin was dropped off in the Gush Etzion area: "It was right before we reached the roadblock, they told me 'if you turn back you get a bullet in the head. If you see Arabs on the way – don't talk to them.'

"They pointed me in the direction of a roadblock three kilometers away…The nightmare only ended when I reached the roadblock. I'm in this profession for over 30 years, but I'm never going back into those areas, not for a million dollars."

Following the event Asulin filed a complaint at the Zevulun police station.

Ynet