IDF admits marking detained Palestinians with numbers during raid, expresses remorse

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged on Tuesday that soldiers marked detained Palestinian suspects with numbers during a military raid in the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya a day earlier. The admission followed the circulation of footage showing a Palestinian man with the number '44' written on his forehead. In a statement to The Times of Israel, the military said that commanders had stressed the seriousness of the conduct to the troops involved and that 'lessons have been learned.' This incident follows a similar case in April, when the IDF described the marking of Palestinian women in the Jenin refugee camp as a case of 'poor judgment.' The Haaretz newspaper reported that several Palestinians detained during the Qabatiya operation had numbers written on their bodies. Palestinian sources cited by the newspaper alleged that more people were detained than the two arrests officially announced by the military and claimed that some were beaten. Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi condemned the incident on X, describing it as 'shocking and disgusting' and stating that it evoked 'dark times.' The use of numbers to identify people on their skin is widely considered taboo in Israel due to its association with the identification methods used by Nazis during the Holocaust.