A 25-year-old reservist from Samaria who was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has been released after six days in custody.
The arrest was carried out due to suspicion of involvement in an incident in which a Palestinian Authority Arab was killed near the village of Qusra.
The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court rejected a request by police and the Shin Bet to extend the detention, accepting the demand of the soldier's attorney from Honenu, Nati Rom, that the soldier be released.
The reservist will remain under house arrest for three days.
Prior to the hearing, and following a public and legal struggle, the reservist met with a lawyer for the first time after six days of Shin Bet interrogation. The order preventing the meeting was lifted unexpectedly on Monday morning.
Attorney Rom said, “I hope this brings to an end a troubling case of an IDF soldier’s detention under draconian orders. I hope that those who need to draw conclusions from this affair will do so. Enough of the persecution of IDF soldiers, enough with using tools meant to be reserved for terrorists against soldiers."
The soldier, a resident of Samaria who served hundreds of days in reserve duty as a fighter in the Duchifat Battalion and fought in Gaza, is suspected of involvement in the killing of a Palestinian terrorist during an incident that occurred about a month ago near the village of Qusra.
According to reports, the incident began when Arabs attacked Jewish shepherds in the area. Civilian and military security forces were dispatched to assist the shepherds and repel the attackers. During the court hearing, it was revealed that the Palestinian who was killed was a Hamas operative who had previously been involved in a severe lynching of Jewish teenagers hiking near the community of Migdalim during a bar mitzvah outing. Hamas also published an official mourning notice and eulogies following his death.