Israel Police Judea and Samaria District chief Cmdr. Moshe Pinchi has ordered the urgent arrest of an Israeli suspected of attacking an elderly Palestinian woman, a spokesman confirmed to JNS on Wednesday.
“A photo that kept me up at night. We will not be like our cruel enemies,” Pinchi wrote in a message to fellow officers in an internal WhatsApp group on Monday, sharing a video of the Oct. 19 incident.
“This cruel criminal, who beats elderly women, badly injuring them, will be arrested by us and be brought to justice,” Pinchi vowed in the chat.
The authenticity of the message was confirmed to JNS on Wednesday. A police spokesman said an “open and active investigation” was ongoing.
Israeli Deputy Commissioner Moshe Pinchi sent a message to other commanders, ordering them to find and stop an Israeli man who had attacked and seriously injured an elderly Palestinian woman in the West Bank who had been out harvesting olives.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 20, 2025
He added "An image that kept me… pic.twitter.com/3mXCPxtxMB
In a separate statement to JNS, the Israeli military confirmed its troops had responded to “a confrontation that included vehicle arson and physical violence near the community of Shiloh” in Samaria’s Binyamin region.
Accusing Israeli civilians of initiating the clashes, the army said the confrontation was dispersed in order to ensure that the ongoing olive harvest season “proceeds in a proper and safe manner for all residents.”
“Further processing of the incident was transferred to the Israel Police,” according to the statement, which added that the military “views this incident with severity and strongly condemns any form of violence.”
“Such violence diverts the attention of commanders and soldiers from their primary mission during this complex period—defense and counter-terrorism,” according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
The alleged assault near the Arab village of Turmus Ayya was captured on video by Jasper Nathaniel, a U.S.-based anti-Israel activist. The vast majority of the southern Samaria town’s residents are U.S. citizens.
Nathaniel told the BBC that an Israeli civilian knocked the Arab woman—named as Afaf Abu Alia, or Umm Saleh—unconscious with his stick, before striking her again as she fell down. She was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit but is now in a stable condition, per the BBC.
The Israel Defense Forces recorded 663 instances of violence by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria last year, a 34% decrease compared to 2023, when 1,005 incidents were recorded by the IDF.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem recorded thousands of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Jews in 2024, including many in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times last year, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
The olive harvest season, which officially started Oct. 9, is traditionally a period of increased tensions, with Arabs seeking to access trees close to Jewish villages.
On Wednesday morning, acting Israeli Interior Minister Yariv Levin and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the deportation of 32 foreign citizens who illegally protested under the cover of the harvest.
They were reportedly banned from entering the Jewish state for 99 years.
The Oct. 16 protest, which occurred in a restricted military zone near the Burin Junction in northern Samaria, was supported by the terror-linked Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which Jerusalem designated over its links to the PFLP terrorist organization back in October 2021.
“The decisive action to expel the anarchists sends a clear message that there will be zero tolerance for violating the sovereignty of the state, incitement to terrorism and support for it,” according to Levin.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan stated Wednesday: “I thank all the authorities who acted in full coordination ... and succeeded in stopping the provocations and the constant attempts to harm the communities in Judea and Samaria and the State of Israel.”
