Four Israeli soldiers and an Israeli army officer have been arrested for beating two Palestinians who were being held in custody.
Israel’s Military Police arrested the five personnel on Wednesday and referred them to a military court in order to remand them in custody, the Times of Israel reported, citing a statement from the Israeli army.
Five #IDF troops arrested for assaulting Palestinians https://t.co/iP46brkGyh #Israel pic.twitter.com/tPQlBpRgcy
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) January 10, 2019
The soldiers are accused of beating two Palestinians who were arrested earlier this month near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. The pair were arrested during a manhunt for the alleged perpetrator of an attack on Israeli soldiers near the illegal outpost of Givat Assaf in December, which came amid a week of heightened violence and Israeli crackdowns across the occupied West Bank.
The soldiers are suspected of beating the detained Palestinians as revenge for December’s attack since both sets of soldiers belong to the same unit – the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, which is stationed in the occupied West Bank.
5 IDF Soldiers Arrested for Allegedly Beating Detained Palestinians Out of Revenge https://t.co/JNnpdj8f4Z
— Jake Morphonios (@morphonios) January 10, 2019
This is not the first time the Netzah Yehuda Battalion – an ultra-Orthodox unit based near the northern West Bank city of Jenin – has been accused of right-wing violence against Palestinians.
In 2016, a Netzah Yehuda soldier was sentenced to nine months in prison for torturing Palestinian suspects with electric shocks. According to Israel’s military prosecutors, the soldier in question arrested a Palestinian near Jenin in October 2015, before blindfolding, handcuffing and beating him. The soldier then attached electrodes to the Palestinian’s neck and shocked him, increasing the voltage when the man begged the soldier to stop.
Oh Yishai Fleisher, enjoy your US taxpayer handouts before we end them. Please send my respects to your racist allies in the video below who celebrated the murder of a Palestinian infant. https://t.co/75brA2Q36T
— Lyle Boggs (@LyleBoggs) January 10, 2019
In 2015, an Israeli soldier from the same battalion was sentenced to 21 days in military prison for celebrating the murder of 18-month-old Palestinian Ali Dawabsheh at a wedding.
In a video, wedding guests could be seen dancing with guns, knives and a pretend Molotov cocktail, as well as holding and stabbing a photo of Ali.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
