A Palestinian who broke into the British embassy's car park in Tel Aviv demanding asylum was captured by Israeli police today after an eight-hour standoff in which he had threatened to shoot himself.
Nadim Injaz said he wanted to go to Britain because he had been shunned by Israel and his own people after informing for the Jewish state. Police said he had been carrying a toy pistol.
"The police anti-terrorist unit moved in and captured the suspect at the first opportunity we had," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. "There were no injuries to the unit or to the individual."
Rosenfeld said the intruder had climbed over the car park's fence at 2:45pm. In a telephone call broadcast on Channel 2 TV during the standoff, Injaz said he would kill himself unless his demand for a new life in Britain was met.
Israeli reporters said Injaz had contacted them days before the embassy incident warning he was about to take "extreme action". They identified him as a Palestinian who worked briefly as an informer for Israel's Shin Bet security agency.
He has been living illegally in the Jewish state and police said he petitioned an Israeli court recently for a residency permit on the basis of his past service as an informer.