The Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID) arrested an IDF platoon commander and four combat soldiers from the IDF's religious battalion Netzah Yehuda Thursday for allegedly beating two Palestinians who were held in custody.

The soldiers were to be brought before a military court Thursday for their remand hearing.

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About a month ago, two soldiers from the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion tried to free three settlers who were in custody for throwing stones at Palestinians. As a result, a rare clash broke out between the soldiers and the Border Police forces who arrested the settlers.

Netzah Yehuda soldiers clashing with Border Police, December 2018

The two servicemen were suspended from their positions pending a joint investigation of the incident by the IDF and Border Police.

In the past couple of years the religious battalion was involved in a number of violent incidents.

Netzah Yehuda battalion

Among others, members of the battalion were disciplined for interfering with a Palestinian journalist as she was reporting from the field, allowing participants in the so-called "wedding of hate" to use their weapons, and pointing a firearm at an Israeli Arab man in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Although most of these incidents involved only a handful of Netzah Yehuda soldiers, they still point to an alarming trend.