Detention extended of suspect in weekend settler attacks with known history of violence

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended on Wednesday the remand of a suspect arrested on suspicion of involvement in settler attacks in the West Bank over the weekend, including attacks against a Washington Post photojournalist and European diplomats.

The suspect, Nadav Cohen Tzemach, has a documented history of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but has never been charged with any crimes.

In addition, the court ordered four of the other suspects to be released to house arrest until next Thursday, although the Israel Police said they would appeal for a suspension of the release.

Their release to house arrest will leave Tzemach the lone suspect still behind bars in connection with the violence of the past weekend, after the other three were released earlier this week.

They were among 10  suspects detained at dawn on Monday across several locations in the central West Bank.

Settler activists said one of the sites raided by the police was an illegal farming outpost close to the Ofra settlement. Several other outposts were also raided near the Shiloh settlement, 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) north of Ofra.

The arrests were carried out after masked Israeli settlers launched several attacks on Palestinians harvesting olives over the weekend. In one incident on Friday, settlers violently assaulted and injured Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. The next day, European diplomats were attacked near the village of Taybeh.

The US condemned the attack on the reporter, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the administration was “very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing” and expected Israeli action. The European Union said it expects “full accountability as well as effective measures to prevent continued acts of violence.”

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast doubt on both incidents, saying there were questions regarding what had occurred and that full investigations were needed.

A later police statement said that of the 10 suspects, two were suspected in the attack on the diplomats, four were suspected in the attack on Levine, and another four were suspected of “breaking into a home and violating a closed military zone.”

It was not clear which attack prompted Tzemach’s arrest.

It was not the first time that Tzemach, an IDF reservist, has been arrested over acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

In December 2025, he was detained for running over a Palestinian with his ATV while the victim was praying on the side of the road.

He also entered a Palestinian village in civilian clothes earlier that day and opened fire, the IDF said at the time.

He was placed under house arrest for several days following the incidents, but was never charged with any wrongdoing.

The father of the Palestinian hit by the ATV said at the time that Tzemach was a “known settler.”

“He set up an outpost near the village, and with other settlers he comes to graze his livestock, blocks the road and provokes the residents,” Majdi Abu Mokho told AFP.

Incidents of settler violence take place across the West Bank on a daily basis, but arrests are very rare, and indictments and convictions are even less frequent.