Two Golani Brigade soldiers defended a Palestinian man on Friday night in Hebron when a crowd of Jewish settlers began beating him, N12 reported on Saturday. The man, Ibrhaim Badar, told Ynet he was simply walking down the street when he was assaulted. The Jewish attackers are reportedly visiting Yeshiva students and not local city residents. The two soldiers ran into the crowd, shouted at members to step back and escorted the man away despite crowd members walking behind them asking them to step back and allow them to continue hitting the man. Badar pointed out that despite video footage of the incident and the heroism of the soldiers, none of those who harmed him were arrested at this time.
Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted on Saturday evening in support of the Golani soldier who “acted as we expect any soldier and commanding officer in the IDF should act.”
“The IDF is committed to the security of civilians anywhere it operates,” he wrote. “I trust the IDF to investigate this incident in an orderly fashion.”
Economy Minister Amir Peretz commended the IDF soldier who prevented the assault of Badar and said "he acted in the spirit of the IDF.”He added that serving in Hebron is not easy and that when Jewish settlers employ violence "they just make the hardships of the soldiers worse."
Peretz called for the response to the assault to be carried out with the "uttermost severity.”