The police released 16 of the 17 Israelis it arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in attacks on Arabs in the town of Hawara in Samaria last month.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered on Monday the release under restrictive conditions of all detainees, except one minor who is still in custody.
Last Wednesday, in a wide-ranging night operation, detectives arrested 17 Israelis at various locations across the country and charged them with attacking Arabs.
The incident began in January when about 30 Israeli vehicles drove in a convoy through the village towards the nearby Israeli community of Yitzhar, celebrating the release of a right-wing activist.
According to police, “At one point, a number of vehicles stopped in the village and its passengers got out holding batons, stones, and objects, causing extensive damage to businesses, vehicles and property and wounding a Palestinian.”
Whereas the Israelis said they were responding to attacks on them by local Arabs.
תיעוד השיירה ומפגן הכוח היהודי בחווארה pic.twitter.com/z5zs67h8p8
— שחר גליק (@glick_sh) January 24, 2022
Nati Rom, of the Honenu legal rights organization and who represented the group, accused the police of failing to investigate the Israelis’ complaint that they were attacked by Arabs.
“After a well-publicized arrest of 17 suspects in an extraordinary operation that I do not recall its similarity, it turns out that what they [the Israelis] claimed was always true, and that there is no evidence linking the suspects to illegal acts,” he stated.
He further pointed out that the police’s representatives admitted in court that the complaints of the suspects who were attacked were not investigated at all.
Hawara has been the scene of repeated terror attacks by Arabs against Jews and daily rock-throwing attacks.
