Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinians on suspicion of online incitement to terror after they praised Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and called for more antisemitic violence, the Israel Police said on Tuesday.
The arrests were carried out overnight in separate raids in the Judea towns of Al-Majd and Ad-Dhahiriya following intelligence gathered by the Israel Defense Forces’ Central Command and Israel Police’s Judea and Samaria District, according to the statement.
Police said the suspect from Al-Majd, who they said was affiliated with Hamas, used social media to praise the Oct. 7 attacks and urged his followers to “rise up and violently conquer Jerusalem.” In another post, he allegedly wrote, “Our war with the Jews is a war of extermination until the very end.”
The second suspect, a 30-year-old resident of Dhahiriya, allegedly praised Iranian proxy Palestinian Islamic Jihad for participating in the Oct. 7 attack, as well as “martyrs” killed during the war. Police said he also praised rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israel during the “Operation Guardian of the Walls” against Hamas in May 2021.
Both suspects were taken to the Hebron police station for questioning and are expected to appear before a court for a hearing on extending their detention, police added.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip, IDF Central Command set up a special division to tackle online incitement. The division is led by members of the Military Prosecution in the Judea and Samaria Division, along with intelligence personnel and operational officers, under OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth.
