IDF Admits Soldiers Wrote Numbers on Palestinian Detainees During Jenin-Area Raid; US Ambassador Condemns Separate Settler Attacks

Israeli soldiers wrote identification numbers on Palestinian detainees during a raid this week on Qabatiya, a village near Jenin in the northern West Bank. The IDF confirmed it happened.

According to Army Radio, reported by The Jerusalem Post, the operation involved the Duvdevan unit searching more than 100 buildings and detaining several people for questioning. The military said two suspected terrorists were among those detained, accused of planning attacks against Israeli citizens and soldiers.

One detainee, Ahmad al-Hathnawi, had the number 44 written on his forehead in permanent marker. He told local Palestinian media, cited by Arab News, that around 50 people were held in the house where he was questioned and that soldiers "treat us brutally." He said it was the first time he'd been marked this way, despite having been arrested four times before.

Middle East Eye spoke to another resident, Mahmoud Nazzal, who said soldiers broke down his family's doors after dawn prayers and detained more than 70 men in the house over roughly nine hours, from about 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nazzal said his diabetic mother suffered a blood sugar drop and needed insulin before soldiers allowed help in, and that an elderly detainee with a heart condition needed an ambulance after his release. His father, Mufid Nazzal, 67, said he was handcuffed the entire time and marked on his hand and forehead.

These are detainee accounts relayed to Middle East Eye and Palestinian outlets. They have not been independently verified by Israeli authorities, and the IDF has not disputed or confirmed the specific allegations of physical abuse, only the marking itself.

The IDF's own statement, carried by both Arab News and The Jerusalem Post, was brief: "Security forces marked suspects who were being interrogated as part of the operation," the military said, adding that commanders explained "the seriousness of the act" to soldiers afterward and that "lessons were drawn from the matter." The statement indicates the practice happened and suggests it wasn't authorized standard procedure.

Knesset lawmaker Ahmad Tibi called it "shocking and disgusting" in a post on X, saying it reflected the dehumanization of Palestinians, according to TRT World. TRT World's own headline compared the practice to Nazi concentration camp tattooing, calling it "reviving memories of Nazi camps." The outlet noted this isn't the first time: Israeli forces reportedly marked Palestinian women from Jenin with numbers in April, and marked detainees from Hebron with numbers in 2024.

Separately, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee weighed in this week on a different problem: extremist Jewish settlers seizing Palestinian homes. According to Fox News, settlers besieged three homes in the West Bank, including one under construction owned by Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American from Ohio, in the village of Qusra near Nablus.

Huckabee didn't mince words on X. He called the settlers' actions "criminal" and said, "The actions of those doing this to this family's home is criminal. Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behavior." He pushed back on criticism that the U.S. hadn't intervened, saying the embassy had been "VERY involved" and had already coordinated with the IDF and Israel Police to remove the settlers, with one arrest made.

A senior Israeli official from the prime minister's office, speaking to Fox News, defended the broader settler community while acknowledging a problem with what he called "juvenile delinquents." He said Israel opened more than 350 investigations in the first quarter of 2026 alone, leading to 35 arrests, and that the IDF sent an additional battalion into the West Bank to address settler violence. He also pointed out that Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis vastly outnumber settler attacks. He cited more than 300 such attacks in May 2026 alone and called any attempt to equate the two "hypocritical."

Both figures are true and both matter. Settler violence against Palestinians is a real, documented problem that Israeli officials themselves admit they're struggling to contain. Palestinian terrorism against Israelis is also real and vastly more frequent by the government's own numbers. Neither fact cancels out the other.

On the enforcement side, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced this week that the IDF will present a plan within two weeks to transfer civilian law enforcement authority in the West Bank to Israel Police, according to The Jerusalem Post. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has pushed for this transfer for months, called it "a significant step toward implementing Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank." Katz framed it differently, saying, "We will not allow violence or unauthorized parties to take the law into their own hands" — language aimed squarely at the settler vigilantes Huckabee condemned.

What happens next in Qabatiya is unclear. The IDF has said lessons were "drawn" from the marking incident but has not announced disciplinary action against specific soldiers or units, and no independent investigation has been announced as of this writing. Whether the promised transfer of West Bank enforcement from military to police custody, expected within two weeks per Katz's announcement, actually curbs settler violence remains an open question with a concrete deadline attached to it.