Taking war prizes and then using them against their former owners is an ancient tradition, particularly in the Israeli military. The 5 May issue of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that during Operation Defensive Shield, the Israel Defense Forces confiscated 23 Palestinian security forces Leyland Landrovers. During the siege of Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound, an elite unit special forces unit captured the expensive Land Rovers from the compound courtyard and transferred them to a holding area, then finally to his own unit's logistical base.

Four days later, Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz instructed that the highly coveted jeeps be transferred to the Technology and Logistics division's war prizes unit, which will then decide what special forces units will be allocated the vehicles. Competition is tough and it currently seems that the unit that originally captured them in will not receive them. 

The unit commander wanted to avoid the mistake made in Tul Karm, where he failed to get to saw similar jeeps in time before Golani APCs destroyed them. Another 60 jeeps left behind in Arafat's Ramallah compound were also completely destroyed, some of them on purpose by IDF soldiers. - Adam Geibel