The Israel Police have arrested a second suspect on suspicion of being involved in the attack on a commander of a battalion from the Paratroopers Brigade and his soldiers in the Huwara area, south of Shechem (Nablus), on Wednesday night.
Earlier, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court rejected the request of the police to extend by five days the detention of a soldier who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. His detention was extended by one day - until Friday.
Attorney Adi Keidar from the Honenu legal aid organization represented the soldier at the hearing and claimed that he was not connected to the incidents as "he made his way towards his home in Samaria, and stumbled upon the scene due to a traffic jam caused by the event." Keidar explained that due to the darkness, the soldier’s vehicle was mistakenly identified as a vehicle related to the incident.
Keidar said after the hearing, "The suspect who was arrested today is not related to the incident at all, he is a soldier who came from his base and as a result of the road being blocked, he came across the scene. The judge extended his detention by only 24 hours in order to find out a number of things, I estimate that he will be released. The incident is incorrectly described by the police."
"The governance and security of the residents in the area is at a level of zero, the residents come to protest, events like this flare up, we all don't want them to end the way they did, but we need to place an emphasis on Arab terrorism which is the main thing here, and if there was one incident or another that we don't think is right or justified, it's not that incident needs to be published, but the precarious security situation in the region," added Keidar.
According to a statement from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wednesday night’s incident occurred when a violent disturbance involving dozens of Jewish residents took place in the area, during which rocks were thrown at Palestinian Arab vehicles. An IDF force, led by the commander of 202nd Paratrooper Battalion "Viper", operated in the area in order to disperse the riot and was attacked with violence that included the spraying of gas by a number of Jews towards the commander and the soldiers.
As a result, the battalion commander and another soldier were injured.
The statement further said that the Jewish residents later sprayed gas at two additional soldiers at the Tapuah junction.
"The IDF strongly condemns the violence used against the soldiers. Violence against the security forces is a criminal behavior, which requires punishment. The harming of IDF soldiers by settlers, who are protected by them, is wrongful behavior that we must denounce and take vigorous action against," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit statement said.
The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said that the majority of the attackers involved in the incident do not live in Judea and Samaria at all.
"The rioters who attacked the IDF soldiers are not part of the spirit of Samaria and we all despise those who attack soldiers. We love the IDF soldiers and their commanders. These are a handful of thugs and everyone knows that they do not in any way represent the settlement in Samaria, and anyone who tries to imply otherwise is a hypocrite. Everyone also knows that most of them are not from the settlement in Samaria at all," said Dagan.