Israeli army returns grocer's money

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army has returned $18,000 taken from the safe in a Ramallah supermarket last week by soldiers, the store's owner said yesterday.

Mahmoud Abdullah, owner of Max supermarket, said a group of Israeli officers came to his home Saturday to return money taken from the store on Thursday. He said two army cameramen filmed the meeting, and he signed a paper confirming that the money had been returned.

Captain Ron Edelheit, spokesman for the Israeli army, said yesterday that the money had not been stolen by its troops. "Basically the [Israel Defence Force] received information about ammunition being stored at the bottom of the supermarket," he said.

"When the IDF went in and opened the safe up, they saw only money and then they had a problem with what to do. They couldn't leave it in the open safe, so it was counted, and taken until they could go back in and find the owner of that store and return it."

On March 30, the second day of the Israeli offensive in the West Bank, an armoured personnel carrier had smashed through the doors of Mr. Abdullah's store. Soldiers broke into the storage area in the basement, and neighbours reported hearing explosions, the owner said.

When the curfew was lifted briefly a few days later, he went in and found that in addition to helping themselves to boxes of food, perfume and cigarettes, the soldiers had tried to blast open the small safe. The lock was destroyed but the heat from the explosion sealed the box.