Undercover Israeli forces abducted a café owner in a village in the northern West Bank on Sunday night, the local mayor said Monday.

Three armed men in plainclothes stopped in a car outside an internet café in Jaba, south of Jenin, and ordered coffees from the owner, 30-year-old Mahmud Alawneh.

As Alawneh walked back to the café, the men pointed guns at his head and forced him into the car, witnesses told Ma’an.

The mayor of Jaba, Bassam Jarrar, told Ma’an that Alawneh’s family received a phone call from Israeli intelligence officers in Jerusalem on Monday notifying them that the café owner was being interrogated at Jalameh detention center.

Israeli forces ransacked Alawneh’s home several weeks ago and inspected it even though he was not home, his brother Nayif told Ma’an.

“They stole money from the house, and Mahmoud brought legal action against the Israeli army,” the brother added.

Israel has detained Mahmoud Alawneh five times and he has spent eight years in Israeli jails. He was last freed in 2011, and opened the internet café on his release.

(Ma’an – www.maannews.net)