IDF probing reservists who allegedly beat Palestinian teen, causing ‘disturbing’ injuries
Military claims Owais Hamam had approached Israeli civilians while ‘shouting slogans about martyrs,’ after he accused settlers of kidnapping him near his West Bank village
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The Israel Defense Forces is investigating the conduct of reservist forces who allegedly beat a Palestinian man in the West Bank earlier this week, causing a “disturbing” amount of injuries, the military confirmed on Saturday.
The victim of the alleged attack, 18-year-old Owais Hamam, was wandering in the area near his village of Khirbet Bani Hairth, close to the Sde Ephraim farm settlement recently legalized by Israel, when his presence was reported to the military by Israeli civilians.
Hamam has said he left his village, west of Ramallah, to head toward the nearby hills to pray the Maghrib, the fourth of Islam’s five prayers, when he was approached by settlers who surrounded him, fired in the air, and beat him up with their fists and rifles. He has said he was then detained by troops who took him for an interrogation, in which he was beaten further.
The army, in its statement, shared its own description of the incident, saying that it received reports of a Palestinian suspect approaching the Israeli civilians “while shouting slogans about martyrs and expressing an intention to carry out an attack.”
A military source claimed that Hamam was suffering from a mental illness.
Soldiers of the IDF’s so-called area defense forces, known by its Hebrew acronym Hagmar — made up of local settlers in reserve duty — who were already in the area, alongside Sde Ephraim’s security coordinator, called on the man to leave, the army said.
According to the military, the reservist soldiers fired in the air, but the suspect continued to approach them. “The reserve soldiers struggled with the suspect physically until they were able to arrest him,” the IDF said.
It said that when additional IDF troops arrived, they took the man to the Shin Bet for questioning.
“The conduct of the reserve forces during the incident is being investigated and actions will be taken in accordance with the findings,” it said.
A military source said that Hamam’s “numerous injuries” were “disturbing and will be closely examined.”
The source noted, however, that the reservists claimed Hamam had fallen over on rocks while approaching, accounting for some of his injuries.
"أجلسوني على الشوك وانهالوا عليّ ضرباً".. الشاب الفلسطيني أويس همام يروي لـ"الشرق" تفاصيل اعتداء مستوطنين عليه قرب رام الله بالضفة الغربية pic.twitter.com/O3QnTgX7rs
— Asharq News الشرق للأخبار (@AsharqNews) December 5, 2025
Hamam, his face and body covered in bruises, spoke to the Saudi-owned Asharq News from his hospital bed in Ramallah Government Hospital on Friday.
He said that four settlers had kidnapped him, punched him, and beaten him with an M-16 rifle while threatening to kill him.
He said the settlers came at him, firing shots in the air as they prevented him from escaping. “They sat me down on thorns and started hitting my face and head with fists and an M-16,” said Hamam.
They then took him westward to the area of Bab a-Taqa, where the military arrived and took him, he said.
It was unclear how Hamam was taken to Bab a-Taqa. Nor was it clear if the settlers were still present when the army arrived.
The troops who found Hamam detained him for interrogation, during which they also beat him, he said.
“They said to me, ‘Why did you come here?’ And I said I was going to pray the Maghrib,” said Hamam. “They said to me, you’re a liar, you want to be a mujahideen and a shahid,” he says, referring to religious fighters and martyrs in Islam, respectively.
The assault left Hamam in serious condition, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported Thursday.
Settler attacks have been escalating in recent months, prompting security agencies to invest more in fighting the trend. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, however, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.
As of early November, the IDF had recorded over 750 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.