An Israeli soldier is charged with attempting to extort money from a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank by staging the kidnapping of one of their relatives, Israeli Army Radio reported.
The soldier, who serves as a prison guard in the army police unit, was arrested after the family contacted Israeli police.
According to the report, the soldier photographed the young Palestinian detainee, sent the image to the family and then demanded a ransom, saying he had ‘kidnapped’ the man.
The Palestinian detainee had been arrested while attempting to enter Israel without a permit and was taken to an army detention facility near the Gush Etzion settlements, where the staged kidnapping took place.
‘The soldier from the military police unit faked the kidnapping incident to get money from the Palestinian family,’ the report said.
Initially, Israeli authorities suspected the incident was part of a rise in settler attacks in the West Bank.
However, tracking the man’s phone revealed he was in Israeli custody.
The soldier is now under questioning, and the army’s internal investigations unit has opened a formal investigation into the case.
Growing violence
This incident comes amid a sharp rise in army and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli army data released earlier this month recorded 845 incidents of settler violence over the past year, a 25 percent increase from 675 cases in 2024.
According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, settlers have killed at least 21 Palestinians since October 2023, with no one held accountable.
The Palestinian man targeted in the ransom attempt is one of more than 9,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons.
A recent B’Tselem report documented widespread physical and psychological abuse of Palestinian detainees.
Yuli Novak, the organisation’s executive director, said: ‘The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, as part of a coordinated onslaught intended to destroy Palestinian society as a collective.’
‘The genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are the most blatant manifestations of this policy,’ Novak added.
According to the report, at least 84 Palestinians, including one child, have died in Israeli custody since October 2023.
Of those deaths, 50 are from the Gaza Strip, 31 from the West Bank, and three were Palestinians citizens of Israel.