Four more arrested, including an IDF conscript, on suspicion of settler violence

Police arrested four more people, including an Israel Defense Forces conscript, on Thursday in connection with suspected settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to an arrest announced earlier that day of a 19-year-old.

Two of those arrested were settlers set to depart from Ben Gurion Airport to Ukraine’s Uman ahead of the Hasidic pilgrimage there on next week’s Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah.

One was a 16-year-old suspected of nationalist crimes in the northern West Bank, and the other an 18-year-old suspected of arson, according to police.

Following their respective interrogations, the 16-year-old was released under restrictive conditions. Police said the 18-year-old would be brought before a judge on Friday to have his detention extended.

Another of the suspects was an IDF conscript arrested in cooperation with military police on suspicion of “involvement in these incidents,” police said in a statement.

And a 29-year-old settler suspected of violence was also arrested in northern Israel for repeatedly violating an IDF decree that required him to report to a police station on a daily basis, according to police.

He was interrogated and will also be brought before a judge on Friday to have his detention extended, police said.

Earlier Thursday, police announced the first arrest of a suspect, a 19-year-old settler, in a Saturday attack on the Palestinian town of Qusra, when dozens of settlers took over a home with a family inside.

One Palestinian woman was reportedly injured in the attack and taken to a local hospital.

Qusra, located southeast of Nablus, has been the target of a wave of recent settler attacks, including a weeks-long siege on several Palestinian homes, which has drawn international attention to the village and has caused a prolonged military deployment in the area that has itself led to the forced displacement of several Palestinian families from their homes.

Also Thursday, a settler accused of a violent attack on Palestinians in the West Bank was arrested for violating the terms of his release.

According to his lawyer, Tal Yinon Dardik was arrested in northern Israel after he failed to show up twice a day at a police station in the West Bank city of Modiin Illit, as the terms of his release required.

His attorney Nati Rom, from the far-right Honenu legal organization, said in a statement that prosecutors have filed an indictment against Dardik and are now seeking to keep him in custody until the end of proceedings.

Dardik is suspected of a brutal attack in March in Khirbet Humsa, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, where he, along with other extremist settlers, allegedly stripped a Palestinian victim, zip-tied his genitals, and paraded him around the village. Dardik denies taking part in the incident.

Last month, a court ordered Dardik freed after 38 days in custody after he had previously repeatedly violated a house arrest order. His case has become a cause célèbre among many right-wing politicians, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, who reportedly visited him in prison.

Meanwhile, a family of settlers with young children was filmed Friday taking grapes from a privately owned Palestinian vineyard in the Halhul area, north of Hebron.

A group of Israeli activists called “Reservists Against Terror,” who had come to assist the Palestinian farmers who own the vineyard, filmed the settlers.

One of the activists, Aviad Hominer-Rosenblum, told The Times of Israel that the activists and Palestinians were removed from the area by the IDF on the grounds that it was a closed military zone requiring prior coordination, while the settlers were not removed. The settlers eventually left of their own accord after the activists approached them.

כך נראית "העגלה המלאה" תרתי משמע של כנופיות המתנחלים הקיצונים. הורים לוקחים את הילדים שלהם להעמיס ארגזים של ענבים גנובים מכרם פרטי של חקלאים פלסטינים באזור חלחול.

כעבור כמה דקות הגיע למקום רכב צבאי והכריח את פעילי הנוכחות המגינה שחברים בקבוצת "מילואמניקים נגד טרור" לעזוב את… pic.twitter.com/sVziTczeH7

— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) September 4, 2026

After the activists turned back, they discovered that the tires of their vehicles had been punctured, Hominer-Rosenblum added.

The IDF has yet to comment on the incident.

Settler violence has surged in recent months, with daily attacks and harassment. Prosecutions are rare, and critics accuse the IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of condoning or even encouraging the violence.

On Wednesday, dozens to a hundred people gathered in central Jerusalem to protest the phenomenon. The demonstration, publicized as a call to “stop Jewish terrorism,” was organized by a coalition of civil society and peace groups. The crowd, which skewed older, held signs reading: “I will not be silent” and “How much more blood will be spilled?”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.