Palestinians allege abuse by IDF, settlers in West Bank

A Palestinian human rights activist has accused Israeli soldiers of being involved in a series of alleged offenses against him and his property in the occupied West Bank, amid a spike in violence since the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel by Hamas.

These allegations follow a probe by the U.S. State Department into a string of other alleged human rights abuses by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the West Bank, prior to Oct. 7.

ABC News spoke to Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights activist, at his home in Hebron, the West Bank’s second-largest city. Amro spoke on his back porch, from behind the wire fence that now blocks his spectacular view of the Old City.

Amro said he needs the fence for protection and alleges Israeli soldiers have repeatedly failed to protect him from run-ins with right-wing settlers – his neighbors – who he says have threatened him. He also highlighted one particularly frightening encounter.

"He came here with a gun, he was very happy to show his power,” Amro said of an encounter with a neighbor. "He went around, he pointed the gun and said, 'I will shoot you if I want.’"

This incident happened a few feet away from an Israeli military outpost, according to the activist.

“In spite of the presence of the soldier, I was attacked many times,” he said. “They do nothing about it. I’m afraid to stand here in the middle of the night – I feel they may shoot me.”

Amro first connected with ABC News in 2023, after the IDF put parts of Hebron under lockdown in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Months before that, an Israeli soldier was caught on video attacking Amro in the street. The IDF jailed the soldier for 10 days, they said.

After those incidents, Amro reinforced his windows with concrete stones to act as protection.

“From the settlers and the soldiers,” he said. “I see them the same now.”

He highlighted security camera footage that appears to show a soldier walking onto his property in November. The man stole a GoPro and CCTV cameras, Amro alleged.

“Then he told me that he would come to kill me on the night,” he said.

Amro alleged that soldiers took him from his home and interrogated him for 10 hours on Oct. 7. He held up a strip of cloth he said was used to gag him, putting it in his mouth to demonstrate his alleged treatment.

“I'm keeping it as a souvenir," he said.

The Israeli military told ABC News that Amro had not filed a formal complaint alleging violence by its soldiers, and accused him of being linked to “illegal disturbances” in the area.

Hebron stands as one of the most restrictive cities in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israeli forces and settlers since 1967. In order to keep the more than 200,000 Palestinians separate from the roughly 800 Israeli settlers, the IDF regularly limits access to roads. A soldier posted at a military outpost in the city acknowledged the tense relationship with the locals.

“They don’t trust me, I don't trust them,” he said.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF says it has conducted “over 200 operations” in the West Bank, “eliminating over 500 terrorists.” They claimed that more than 17,000 people they’ve arrested are linked with Hamas.

Palestinian officials say Israeli operations have killed 140 children in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the October violence. Israel argues that the raids are necessary to prevent terror attacks.

A U.S. State Department investigation into IDF conduct in the West Bank concluded that three Israeli Army battalions committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians before Oct. 7.

One such unit was Netzah Yehuda, a unit made up primarily of ultra-Orthodox men. A 2019 video allegedly shows some of its soldiers abusing a pair of blindfolded Palestinian detainees.

An Israeli court convicted an officer and five soldiers for their roles in mistreating the two men.

Yossi Levi is the CEO of Netzah Yehuda Organization, which represents soldiers in the unit. They refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a reference to ancient Israelite kingdoms as some Israelis assert that the area is a historic Jewish homeland.

“It's too complicated to deal with civilian people in Judea and Samaria, to deal with thousands of operations, success operations, by the way,” he said of the incidents. “So sometimes you have bad events.”

However, such events have sometimes turned deadly. In 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died while in Netzah Yehuda’s custody. He and Mamdouh Abu Aboud were arrested at random as they drove through the village, according to Aboud.

“That night there were no security incidents, there were no confrontations between us and them,” Aboud said, speaking in Arabic.

He lay on the ground to demonstrate the position soldiers allegedly held Assad in, before he suffered from a heart attack and died, according to Aboud.

“The soldier came and hit me. I looked left and right and see Omar on the ground. I got close to him and put my hand here,” Aboud said, indicating his neck. “I knew him and called him. He didn’t respond. I checked his pulse, he had no pulse.”

In response, the IDF said the soldiers “violated” a core value of protecting human life and two of the commanders involved were suspended from their positions for two years. After the unit’s misconduct came to light in 2022, Netzah Yehuda was redeployed out of the West Bank.

That hasn’t stopped the alleged abuses. In June, video showed Mujahed Abbadi – an injured Palestinian – tied to the front of an IDF unit’s jeep. The IDF said soldiers had violated orders and standard operating procedures during a counterterrorism operation.

Former tank commander Ori Givati, who is now part of an Israeli nonprofit called "Breaking the Silence," is among the Israelis trying to highlight the IDF’s alleged abuses in the West Bank, and says the problem is the occupation itself.

“When you occupy millions of people with the military, you go through a process of dehumanization,” Givati said.

He acknowledges that the soldiers stationed in the West Bank are working under extremely difficult circumstances -- soldiers and settlers in the area are constantly threatened with attack. However, he highlights Israel’s role in creating that tension.

“Occupying the Palestinians for almost 57 years now is not helping our security,” he said. “Militarily occupy them, invade their homes, disperse their protests, build settlements on their lands. Maybe that is something that is creating a lot of hostility and we should change course.”

Amro, the Palestinian human rights activist, doesn’t understand why the Israelis see him as an enemy, saying he isn’t a security threat.

“I am here to resist peacefully the inequality, the injustice, and try to give hope,” he said.