Report: Police probe indicates Otzma Yehudit MK and CEO attacked cops as suspect escaped during during riot in West Bank settlement

An ongoing police investigation indicates that Yitzhak Kroizer and Itiel Nayman, respectively a lawmaker and the CEO of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, assaulted officers during an October 1 riot in the central West Bank that thwarted the arrest of a suspect in violence against Palestinians, Haaretz reports.

Two police officers were hospitalized following the riot in the Mitzpe Yeriho settlement, and the suspect who fled is still at large, the newspaper says.

Ben Gvir, who arrived on the scene after the suspect escaped, expressed support for the rioters and accused police of using excessive force to disperse them, according to sources cited by the newspaper.

According to Haaretz, senior police officers are now demanding Kroizer and Nayman be investigated for assaulting officers, disrupting police work and helping a suspect escape, but fear the case will be mishandled because of the pair’s ties to Ben Gvir who, as national security minster, oversees the police. The news outlet says the case is expected to be reviewed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The riot in Mitzpe Yeriho erupted after police chased a car occupied by three masked settlers suspected of attacking a neighboring Palestinian village, Haaretz reports. The chase reportedly led police into Mitzpe Yeriho during a memorial event at a local synagogue for Nayman’s brother Aviad, a resident of the settlement who was killed fighting in Lebanon in October 2024. The synagogue is named for the fallen soldier.

Police managed to block the suspects’ car near the synagogue, but two of them fled, Haaretz says. The third suspect was reportedly detained and put in the police vehicle.

Dozens of rioters then surrounded the police car and slashed its tires, Haaretz reports. They were allegedly led by Nayman, who threatened not to let the officers in the car leave until they released the suspect, according to senior police sources cited by the newspaper.

The officers say they stood outside the police car to stop the suspect from escaping, and were then shoved by rioters who opened the car door and let him out, the newspaper reports.

Riot police reportedly arrived on the scene and started clashing with the settlers. One officer reportedly suffered a broken nose.

Evidence and testimony from the clash indicate that Kroizer hit an officer and Nayman grabbed an officer by the shirt and pulled him to the ground, according to police sources cited by Haaretz.

Following the clash, officers who attempted to drive the vehicle with the slashed tires were blocked again for some 30 minutes by dozens of settlers, some of whom banged on the car windows, Haaretz reports. The settlers were accompanied by Ben Gvir, who berated one of the officers in the car, that officer told his superiors, according to Haaretz.

In responses quoted by the newspaper, Ben Gvir and Nayman say the allegations against them constitute defamation, and Kroizer says he was “assaulted by officers even after I identified myself as a member of Knesset.”

Police say in a statement to the newspaper that an investigation was launched immediately.