Arresting the Mother, Threatening the Children: Four Young Men Taken from Tlouza
Israeli occupation forces arrested Fares Fuqaha’s mother on March 29, 2026, seized his 19-year-old brother from their home in the village of Tlouza, and gave the family an ultimatum: Fares surrenders, or the house comes down.
Fares’s oldest child is 5.
Soldiers smashed every piece of furniture they could reach, then threatened to arrest Fares’s wife and two daughters. They forced the fathers of the Fuqaha family to stand outside and call their sons by name, ordering them to give themselves up.
By nightfall, four young men from this village northeast of Nablus were in Israeli custody. Brothers Fares Rafe’ Fuqaha, 27, and Seif Rafe’ Fuqaha, 19, were taken along with their cousins Hussein Ramzi Muhammad Fuqaha, 27, and Fadi Ramzi Muhammad Fuqaha, 20. Three were handed over by their families at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint. Seif was seized from the house.
The practice is familiar. The occupation has recently escalated an old tactic: arresting the wives, mothers, and children of wanted Palestinians to force their surrender, then threatening to demolish their homes. The tactic has spread across Palestinian villages. Tlouza is its latest target.
“The occupation officer told us that Fares must turn himself in, or they will demolish the house,” the family told the Prisoners’ Media Office. “They gave us a short time, and also threatened to arrest his wife and children.”
Fares had been free for barely two weeks. The Palestinian Authority had held him for 11 months, eight with Palestinian intelligence and three with the Preventive Security apparatus. He was released on the 15th day of Ramadan. His family expected him home for good.
Ten days after Eid al-Fitr, the occupation came for him.
Seif had held the family together during his brother’s absence, working as the sole provider. He was arrested alongside his mother and beaten inside a military jeep while his family watched.
The military issued a six-month administrative detention order against him. Even after Fares turned himself in, the occupation kept Seif locked up, rolling his detention over on a renewable basis.
Fares remains in custody. His family says interrogation is ongoing. They know nothing about his conditions or what comes next.
Their cousins followed the same path on the same day. Hussein Ramzi Muhammad Fuqaha, 27, and his brother Fadi, 20, were taken after the occupation pressured their family. Both had been released from Palestinian Authority detention only 10 days earlier, after spending four months inside.
The families were given no time to recover.
Hussein and Fadi were handed over with Fares at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint. Their families delivered their sons to the occupation with their own hands. Their home, too, was threatened with demolition. Both received six-month administrative detention orders.
The four grew up together, cousins raised side by side. They are now held together. None have been formally charged.
Both families say they have not recovered from the raid.
Fadi and Hussein’s father suffers from heart disease. He cannot bear the separation from his two sons or the violence he witnessed that day.
The families still do not know what has become of their sons’ cases, or what is coming.
