JNS
The suspect held up a picture of the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre during a 2024 rally in Melbourne.
The Israel Police announced on Thursday that a "foreign activist" had been deported the previous day over support for the Hamas terrorist organization.
"As part of a focused operation by Judea and Samaria District detectives, a suspect, a foreign activist in the South Hebron Hills, was arrested after posting social media content against the State of Israel and expressing support for the Hamas terrorist organization," police said in Hebrew.
Following further investigation and questioning of the suspect, who was said to have publicly "supported and identified with" the terrorist group, Israel's Population and Immigration Authority decided to immediately deport him during an administrative hearing on Wednesday.
"In accordance with the policies of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levi, the Judea and Samaria District will continue ... using all legal tools at its disposal, to thwart and expel subversive elements who are working to harm the public order and the security of the State of Israel," police added.
The police statement included a picture of the suspect holding a portrait of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar—the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre—during a 2024 anti-Israel rally in Melbourne, Australia.
In April 2024, the Israel Police established a dedicated team to deal with the increasing phenomenon of foreign far-left anarchists undermining security and stability in Judea and Samaria.
The special division, which includes detectives from investigation and intelligence units who work in cooperation with the Population and Immigration Authority, works under the command of Ben-Gvir.
"The same anarchist elements that I see in Judea and Samaria or Hebron are cursing IDF soldiers, are exacerbating the situation, inciting and encouraging harm against Jews, thus harming the security of the state," Ben-Gvir told the Ynet news outlet last year.
The olive harvest season, which officially started on Oct. 9, is traditionally a period of increased tensions in Judea and Samaria, with Arabs seeking to access trees close to Jewish communities.
Two weeks ago, Ben-Gvir and acting Interior Minister Yariv Levin ordered the deportation of 32 foreign citizens who illegally protested under the cover of the harvest several days prior. The deportees have been banned from entering the Jewish state for 99 years.
The Oct. 16 protest, which occurred in a restricted military zone near the Burin Junction in northern Samaria, was supported by the terror-linked Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which Jerusalem designated over its links to the PFLP terrorist organization back in October 2021.
