Police arrest man seen attacking a Palestinian last month while in IDF uniform

Police arrested an Israeli man who was seen dressed in military uniform while participating in an extremist settler rampage in the northern West Bank town of Huwara, police announced Wednesday.

Footage from the scene of the June 6 attack showed masked assailants and at least one ostensible soldier — seen in full military gear and armed with an assault rifle and pistol — repeatedly punching one of the Palestinians lying on the ground.

“The suspect who was seen in the recordings wearing IDF uniform during the assault and who had been on the run over the past month has been arrested,” police said in a statement.

Police said that an investigation revealed that the man, in his 20s, was a member of a civil defense squad in a nearby settlement. He had been evading law enforcement since the incident, before being detained overnight Tuesday-Wednesday in the northern West Bank.

Following up on their initial statement, police stressed that the suspect was not an active-duty soldier despite his appearance in uniform with army-issued weapons, including an M16 assault rifle and handgun.

The civilian’s weapons were seized and he was taken for further questioning, police said. Authorities intended to request a court order to detain the suspect for the remainder of the investigation.

A total of nine Palestinians were injured in the settler attack, Palestinian media reported. Those injured were a local councilman who suffered shrapnel to the leg, four other people who were beaten and four who were tear-gassed.

The IDF said that soldiers and Border Police officers were dispatched to several sites in Huwara after receiving reports of “suspected theft of livestock belonging to Israeli civilians,” to “remove the Israeli civilians and the livestock from the village and prevent confrontations in the area.”

Later, the military said, “several rioters arrived in the area of the village and violent clashes developed, including stone-throwing and the use of clubs between Israeli civilians and Palestinians.”

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said dozens of settlers also hurled stones at several buildings in Huwara, including the municipality building; smashed the windows of multiple vehicles; and stole a car, a bicycle and about 35 sheep.

Police said that several suspects had already been arrested and an indictment had been filed against one person involved in the assault.

The one person to be charged so far is Uriah Cohen, the former council head of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.

He was accused on June 26 of driving with an accomplice into the heart of the town, both armed with assault rifles, confronting Palestinians driving in their car and then shooting in the air “with the goal of frightening the passengers,” prosecutors said.

Cohen owns Tzofnat Farm, an illegally built outpost that the government resolved in late May to recognize as a legitimate settlement, according to i24 News.

He claimed to investigators that he had entered Huwara that day to search for his flock of sheep that went missing, prosecutors said.

Critics have accused the government and law enforcement of turning a blind eye to violent attacks by settler extremists, which have become increasingly deadly in recent years and occur on a near-daily basis. Arrests are rare and prosecutions are even less common.

The military recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025, compared to 682 incidents in 2024.