Hasidic cult members illegally enter Nablus, ram Palestinian with their car

IDF says it detained several suspects who fled on foot after abandoning car in West Bank city; in separate incident, mentally ill Israeli extracted from Hebron

Members of an ultra-Orthodox cult, led by convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland, illegally entered the West Bank city of Nablus overnight between Thursday and Friday and rammed their car into a Palestinian, security officials said and footage showed.

The Hasidim had been attempting to reach Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city, security officials said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, after ramming the Palestinian — who was reportedly moderately injured — the Israeli citizens abandoned their car and fled on foot.

Several suspects were detained by IDF troops in the area and handed over to the police, the military said. Their vehicle was to be transferred by Palestinian authorities to the Civil Administration, a body in the Defense Ministry, the IDF added.

In security camera footage published by Palestinian media, with a timestamp shortly past 2:20 a.m., the young man can be seen running down the road when a large white car zooms toward him, causing him to swerve right, where a silver car runs into him and sends him flying. A third car pulls up, and people get out to help him.

Further footage published by Palestinian media showed an overturned vehicle with an Israeli license plate, identified as the silver car from the first video, as men in Hasidic garb flee the scene.

According to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, the young man who was run over suffered fractures in his legs.

Before the war that began with the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, busloads of Orthodox Jews visited Joseph’s Tomb under IDF protection on a nearly monthly basis, and the pilgrimages almost always sparked violent clashes with Palestinian locals.

The IDF bars Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian cities without prior authorization and protection, and some criticize the monthly incursions as an unnecessary provocation that places Israeli soldiers at risk.

The shrine, regarded by some as the final resting place of the biblical Joseph, is located inside Area A of the West Bank, which is officially under complete Palestinian Authority control, though the Israeli military regularly enters despite Palestinian opposition.

Berland, 86, has served separate prison sentences in the past for sex offenses and fraud. He had previously spent years on the lam from Israeli authorities and was also detained in connection with murders allegedly carried out by members of his cult, before being released.

Also overnight, a mentally unwell Israeli man was extracted from the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli authorities said.

The Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said it received a report regarding a Jewish man wandering around Hebron, “while facing a real danger to his life.”

“Upon receiving the report, officers from the Hebron District Coordination and Liaison Office acted to provide immediate protection to the Israeli, while simultaneously transferring him to IDF troops,” the Civil Administration said.

The Defense Ministry body said that a preliminary investigation indicates that the Israeli, “who suffers from mental illness and resides in central Israel, had been wandering for many hours in the Hebron area.”

The incident was handed over to the police for further examination.