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Israeli army jails soldier after video of him beating Palestinian activist in Hebron goes viral
(JTA) — A video of a prominent Palestinian activist getting thrown to the ground and kicked in Hebron went viral on Twitter on Monday, prompting the Israel Defense Forces to acknowledge the error and jail the soldier.
The video was posted by Lawrence Wright, a New Yorker staff writer on a tour of the West Bank city with activist Issa Amro. The 38-second video shows a soldier grabbing Amro by the neck, throwing him to the ground and kicking him repeatedly.
“I never had a source assaulted in front of me until today when an Israeli soldier who stopped my interview did this with Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro in Hebron,” Wright tweeted. “I can’t stop thinking how dehumanizing the occupation is on the young soldiers charged with enforcing it.”
Amro is an opinion writer for publications including the Jewish Daily Forward and the Guardian. He gives tours of Hebron, the southern West Bank city that is a flashpoint for conflict owing to its large Palestinian population and small population of Israeli settlers, in addition to the Cave of the Patriarchs, the burial place of Abraham, Sarah and other Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs, which both Jews and Muslims regard as holy.
“I was detained and beaten violently by an Israeli soldier in Hebron,” Amro tweeted. “I was showing the famous American writer Lawrence Wright … the Israeli occupation and apartheid in my home town #Hebron.”
I never had a source assaulted in front of me until today when an Israeli soldier who stopped my interview did this with a Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro in Hebron. I can’t stop thinking how dehumanizing the occupation is on the young soldiers charged with enforcing it. pic.twitter.com/Qrsa1UJsfA
— Lawrence Wright (@lawrence_wright) February 13, 2023
The video was shared well over 10,000 times on Twitter, and the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. sent out a statement from the IDF acknowledging the error and saying that after an inquiry, the IDF had decided to jail the soldier for 10 days and reconsider his military assignment.
In the statement, the IDF claims that Amro cursed the soldier, which Amro and Wright both dispute.
“As the video shows, the soldier did not act as expected and did not follow the IDF code of conduct,” said the statement by IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. “The IDF will not hesitate, despite provocations, to preserve its ethics and morals.”
After the IDF’s statement, Wright posted multiple longer videos showing extended arguments between Amro and the soldier over a video that Amro, who frequently documents what he says is misconduct by Israeli soldiers, had taken. “The soldier initiated the encounter. Amro did not curse or interfere only asked that he call the commander. Nothing to justify the attack that followed,” Wright wrote. The extended videos do not show the soldier physically attacking Amro.
In November, Amro was arrested and subsequently ordered by a military court to leave his home for a week after he filmed a soldier threatening protesters in Hebron. The soldier said, “Ben-Gvir is going to bring order to this place,” referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right politician then in negotiations to join the government in a leadership position. That soldier was also jailed for 10 days.
Now Israel’s minister of national security with authority over the country’s police and unprecedented oversight in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir, who lives near Hebron, announced his support Monday for the soldier who is being punished over his treatment of Amro.
“I support the soldier who didn’t stay quiet with all my strength,” Ben-Gvir tweeted. “Soldiers need to receive support, not jail time.”
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Who Was Tabtabai, Hezbollah’s Military Leader Killed by Israel?
People inspect a damaged building, after Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a militant from the Lebanese Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon November 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Yassin
The Israeli military on Sunday killed Hezbollah’s top military official, Haytham Ali Tabtabai, in a strike on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital that came despite a year-long ceasefire.
His killing was announced by Israel’s military. Hezbollah later confirmed his death, hailing him as “the great jihadist commander” who had “worked to confront the Israeli enemy until the last moment of his blessed life.”
Israel had already eliminated most of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s leadership during a war that raged between October 2023 and November 2024, when a US-brokered truce was agreed.
But Tabtabai, who was appointed as the group’s chief of staff after its recent war with Israel, was killed in a rare post-ceasefire operation against a senior Hezbollah figure.
MILITARY LEADER ROSE THROUGH HEZBOLLAH’S RANKS
Tabtabai was born in Lebanon in 1968 to a father with Iranian roots and a Lebanese mother, according to a senior Lebanese security source. He was not a founding member of Hezbollah but was part of its “second generation,” deploying with the group to fight alongside its allies in Syria and Yemen, the source said.
Israel’s military said Tabtabai joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and held several senior posts, including in its Radwan Force, an elite fighting unit. Israel killed most Radwan figures last year ahead of its ground invasion into Lebanon.
During last year’s war, Tabtabai led Hezbollah’s operations division and rose in rank as other top commanders were eliminated, the Israeli military’s statement said.
Once the ceasefire came into force, Tabtabai was appointed chief of staff and “worked extensively to restore their readiness for war with Israel,” according to the statement.
The Lebanese security source confirmed Tabtabai was swiftly promoted as other top Hezbollah officials were killed, and had been appointed chief of staff over the last year.
The Alma Center, a security research and teaching organization in Israel, said Tabtabai had survived other Israeli attacks both in Syria and during the war in Lebanon.
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Netanyahu, Smotrich to Meet on Israeli 2026 Budget that Faces Battle for Approval
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich during the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and senior ministry officials will present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Sunday with the state budget and planned structural reforms for 2026, Smotrich’s office said.
“The Finance Minister will present to the Prime Minister the necessary measures to ensure continued economic growth and to combat the high cost of living,” it said.
It added that cabinet ministers would vote on the budget on Dec. 4 but it is unlikely the budget would be approved by year end.
According to Israeli law, the budget must be approved by parliament by the end of March or new elections are triggered.
Its final approval faces an uphill battle that could ultimately lead to new elections.
The government has splintered in the past two years over the Gaza war, the ceasefire which has halted it and demands by ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties to exempt Jewish seminary students from mandatory military service.
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Hamas Delegation Meets Egypt Spy Chief, Says Israeli ‘Breaches’ Threaten Ceasefire
Palestinian women look out of a window near the site of Saturday’s Israeli strike in the Central Gaza Strip, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
A senior Hamas delegation met Egypt’s intelligence chief in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the ceasefire agreement and the situation in Gaza, the group said, as both Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group continue to trade accusations of truce violations.
Egypt, Qatar and the US have been mediating between Hamas and Israel, securing the ceasefire that came into effect last month.
In a statement, the group said it reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in its meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief, but accused Israel of “continued violations” that it said threatened to undermine the deal.
Hamas, whose delegation included its exiled Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya, called for a “clear and defined mechanism” under the supervision of mediators to document and halt any breaches of the deal.
The movement said it also discussed with Egypt ways to urgently resolve the issue of Hamas members in Rafah tunnels, adding that communication with them had been cut off.
Reuters reported earlier this month that mediators were trying to address the fate of a group of Hamas fighters holed up in tunnel networks in Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said the country’s military killed five senior Hamas members on Saturday after a fighter was sent into Israeli-controlled Gaza territory to attack Israeli soldiers there.