Israeli who fabricated kidnap story 'was looking for attention,' army says

(*Attention through Deception . Give that boy a medal !

Niv Asraf, 22 from

Beersheba, was found alive and well in a dry creek bed 

outside Kiryat Arba.

Israeli youth who fabricated a missing person's report, which 

prompted a massive manhunt by security forces near Hebron

 on Thursday, was "looking for attention," the army's top 

spokesperson told Channel 2 on Friday.

Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz recounted the tense hours during

 which large contingents of soldiers and police concentrated

forces in the southern West Bank in a frantic search for

 Niv Asraf, the Beersheba native who falsified a distress call.

"The army did not let up until we understood beyond 

any doubt that we could call off the massive search,"

 Almoz said. "During those hours, we were focused

 on finding a kidnapped person alive."

Police said they view the incident with the utmost severity

 in particular due to what they said was a "major waste of 

resources for all of the security services."

Police said Asraf, 22 from Beersheba, was found 

alive and well in a dry creek bed outside Kiryat Arba, 

with a sleeping bag and a supply of canned goods. 

They added that the investigation against Asraf and

 his friend is ongoing.

A massive search for Asraf was launched late Thursday 

afternoon, after police received a call at 4:17 p.m. from

 Asaraf's friend, who said he and a friend got a flat tire 

near Hebron, on the road between Kiryat Arba and the 

Palestinian village Beit Anoun. Police said he told them

 his friend, Asraf, walked off to get tools to change the

 flat tire, but did not return.

The report was taken as a possible kidnapping from the

 first moments, and soon hundreds of soldiers and security

 personnel were combing the area and blocking traffic on

 nearby roads in the hunt for Asraf, also carrying out 

searches in Palestinian homes in Beit Anoun.  

After responding to the call, security forces also noticed

 that the car did not have a flat tire. Other aspects of the

 story didn't add up, and under questioning, Asraf's friend

 contradicted himself to investigators. 

Ben Hartman contributed to this report.