Watch: Stone-Throwing Palestinians Thought They Were Among Only Supporters. It Took Just 17 Seconds for Them to Realize That Wasn't the Case.

Israeli soldiers disguised as Palestinian men surprised a large crowd of Palestinian stone-throwers Wednesday when they pulled their pistols and began tackling some of the instigators.

The Israeli military posted video of the confrontation, which was also posted on YouTube by a Palestinian. An IDF spokesman said the soldiers were part of the “Duvdevan” undercover unit.

In 17 seconds, #IDF Duvdevan arrested 3 Palestinians who attacked the road to #Jerusalem, everybody else scooted. pic.twitter.com/WaObkboIil

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) October 7, 2015

A reporter for Agence France-Presse who saw the drama unfold reported that the undercover agents had been in the crowd of about 100 Palestinians for at least 30 minutes and, apparently to avoid suspicion, were also throwing stones at Israeli soldiers on a West Bank road.

When the Israeli soldiers pulled their weapons, Palestinians began shouting “Mustarabiin!,” a term that refers to people disguised as Arabs.

The Palestinians, many of them college students or college-age, had been throwing stones at Israeli soldiers for several hours outside Ramallah, AFP reported.

The video shows how the crowd quickly ran off after discovering that the men wearing T-shirts and Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves were really armed Israeli military men. AFP observed that one of the Israeli soldiers even had a green Hamas scarf hanging from his jeans pocket.

Palestinian stone-throwers usually cover their faces to avoid being identified by Israeli security forces.

Uniformed IDF soldiers quickly descended on the scene after the undercover soldiers revealed themselves and started making arrests, as seen in edited video captured from the Palestinian side of the confrontation:

AFP reported that one Palestinian was beaten by the soldiers and that three were wounded in the altercation.

There has been a major spike in Palestinian attacks over the past month, including the September killing of an Israeli man whose car was struck in a Palestinian rock-throwing attack in Jerusalem.

A Jewish seminary student was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel police said.