Settler reservist rams ATV into praying Palestinian in West Bank, is detained

Perpetrator earlier fired gun inside village, has been sent to house arrest; five Israelis arrested for throwing stones at Palestinian house, wounding eight-month-old baby

By Noam Lehmann, ToI Staff and Agencies 25 December 2025, 11:34 pmUpdated: 26 December 2025, 1:40 pm Edit
A settler rams an ATV into a Palestinian man as he prays in the West Bank, December 25, 2025. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Footage published by Palestinian media on Thursday showed an Israeli settler, with a rifle slung over his back, driving an ATV into a Palestinian kneeling for prayer on the side of the road.

The incident took place near the village of Deir Jarir, north of Ramallah, in the West Bank.

The IDF confirmed Thursday that the Israeli seen in the footage was a reserve soldier, and said that his weapon was confiscated and his service suspended following the incident.

On Friday, police said he had been arrested on Thursday night and placed under house arrest for five days.

The silent video showed the Palestinian falling over and lying in a heap as the settler gets off the tractor and yells at him, gesturing for him to leave the area.

The settler was then seen walking over to a Palestinian taxi and shouting at the driver before getting back on the ATV and driving away.

According to the military, an initial probe found that the same reserve soldier seen in the footage had also opened fire earlier inside the village while wearing civilian clothes, in what the IDF described as a “serious breach of his authority.”

Earlier in the day, a young Palestinian man was reportedly wounded in the village after settlers hurled stones and fired a gun there.

Two videos published by Palestinian media showed at least five settlers, three of whom threw stones and one of whom fired a gun.

Claims that Palestinians were injured in the shooting were being examined.

The incidents were under investigation and will be transferred to the relevant authorities in accordance with the findings, the IDF said.

The military added that it strongly condemns “all manifestations of violence” and stressed that its soldiers and commanders are required to act in accordance with the IDF code of ethics.

A police spokesperson said Thursday that while the IDF was examining the events in Deir Jarir that preceded the ATV incident, the latter was determined by the army to be a “criminal incident, unrelated to the operational activity” in the village earlier.

As such, the ATV investigation was handed over to the Israel Police’s West Bank Division, according to the spokesperson. The suspect’s arrest was announced the following day.

Majdi Abu Mokho, father of the Palestinian who was hit by the ATV, said his son now has pain in both legs after he was struck.

“The assailant is a known settler. He set up an outpost near the village, and with other settlers he comes to graze his livestock, blocks the road and provokes the residents,” Mokho told AFP.

He said the settler also blinded him with pepper spray after hitting his son, though this does not appear to be clearly shown in the video.

Settler attack hurts Palestinian baby; 5 Israelis arrested

Also Thursday, Israeli security forces announced the arrest of five Israeli settlers over their alleged involvement in an attack on a Palestinian home that injured a baby girl in the West Bank.

The eight-month-old infant suffered “moderate injuries to the face and head” in the late Wednesday attack, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Footage published by Palestinian media showed that two windows in the home were also shattered by the stones.

It blamed the attack on “a group of armed settlers,” accusing them of “throwing stones at homes and property” in the town of Sair, north of Hebron.

A statement from the Israeli police said that five suspects had been arrested for their “alleged involvement in serious, violent incidents in the village of Sair.”

Israeli settlers walk down a hill as Israeli soldiers block access for Palestinians to an area for harvesting olives in the West Bank village of Sa’ir, near Hebron, October 23, 2025. (Leo Correa/AP)

Israeli security forces had received reports of “stones being thrown by Israeli civilians toward a Palestinian home,” adding that a Palestinian girl was injured.

“The preliminary investigation determined the involvement of several suspects who came from a nearby outpost,” the statement said, referring to a settlement that is illegal under Israeli law.

Separately, settlers reportedly set fire to a bulldozer in the southern West Bank village of Beit Fajjar and graffitied a Star of David and the messages “You won’t break us,” and “Revenge” on a nearby wall early Thursday morning. No arrests have been reported.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents.

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