Palestinian couple suspected of living in Israel under stolen identity for 20 years, in longest-ever impersonation case

Police have arrested a Palestinian couple on suspicion of living under a stolen Israeli identity for over twenty years.

The couple led a double life between the West Bank and Rahat, a Bedouin city in the Negev, and had several children born in Israel, police say.

“It appears this is the longest-running case of impersonation under a fake identity that Israel has known over its 78 years of existence,” says Supt. Barak Revivo, a West Bank District police detective.

Police believe the 57-year-old husband, from the West Bank city of Halhul, possessed a family reunification permit that allowed him to reside periodically in Rahat.

He married his wife, a 43-year-old from the same city, over two decades ago, and the two resolved to fraudulently obtain an identity card that would allow them to live together in Israel.

As part of the scheme, the couple divorced on paper and the husband married an Israeli citizen from Arara whom he had never met, and the woman’s identity was effectively transferred to his wife. Police believe the couple purchased the woman’s identity.

Police raided suspects’ homes last night and this morning, arresting the couple and two other family members suspected of assisting the alleged fraud.

Law enforcement began probing the suspicions in late 2025 alongside the National Insurance Institute, as the husband and wife are also suspected of having defrauded state funds by virtue of impersonating an Israeli citizen.