After a months-long undercover investigation, police arrested a Palestinian couple from the town of Halhul near Hebron on Wednesday morning on suspicion of living a double life for more than 20 years, using the identity of an Israeli citizen to receive state funds and open businesses in her name. Two other family members were arrested in the raid, and additional relatives were detained for questioning.
The investigation, dubbed “Borrowed Identity,” began in late 2025 in the intelligence and investigations arm of the Hetz Yehuda crime-fighting unit, together with investigators from the National Insurance Institute’s Beersheba branch, after authorities received information about alleged fraud and impersonation involving the couple.
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Impersonation case and double life under Israeli and Palestinian identities
(Photo: Police Spokesperson’s Unit)
According to police, the man, 57, a Halhul resident who holds a family reunification permit allowing him to live periodically in Rahat, married the woman, 43, also from Halhul, more than 20 years ago.
A few months later, the two divorced “on paper” in order to fraudulently obtain an Israeli identity card, while continuing to live together. The man then “married” an Israeli citizen from Arara in the Negev whom he had never met, and her identity was allegedly assigned to his supposed ex-wife. The suspected couple later remarried.
Since then, the woman from Halhul has been identified using the Arara resident’s details, except for her photograph. The couple had several children at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, and the family divided its life between Rahat, where they lived as Israelis, and Halhul, where they lived as Palestinians.
The investigation found that the couple’s immediate and extended family allegedly knew about the deception, the use of the Israeli identity and the suspected fraud involving state funds. For example, when the main suspect was at her home in Halhul, relatives called her by the initial S., while in Rahat and among acquaintances she was known as O.
The suspects were taken for questioning to substantiate the allegations against them and determine what happened to O., the Arara resident whose identity was stolen. The couple’s remand was extended until Sunday.
Chief Inspector Barak Revivo, commander of the intelligence and investigations arm of the Hetz Yehuda unit, said: “It appears this is the longest-running impersonation using a false identity in the 78 years of the State of Israel’s existence. Although we are still in the early stages of the overt investigation, one of the main goals is to uncover, among other things, what happened to the woman whose identity was acquired by the two main suspects.”