About 15 settlers viciously assaulted farmers working their land. The incident occurred on Thursday, 11 June 2020, when three residents of Burqah were out picking hyssop (za’atar) and sage and tending to olive trees on Nasim Haja’s (42) farmland.
At around midday, the three residents – Haja, Nasrallah Salah (16) and his father Fatin Salah (49) – saw about 15 settlers who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Some of them were masked and carrying firearms and sticks. The settlers stopped several meters away and started throwing stones at Haja and Salah, who were working side by side. Three of the stones hit Haja – two in the back and one in the leg – and Fatin and Salah helped him get away. The settlers left, too.
Fatin alerted village residents, who came and took Haja home. An ambulance then took him to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where he was diagnosed with torn tendons in his leg and lesions on his liver. Haja was later discharged with orders to rest for 25 days under medical supervision.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i, Nasim Haja described the attack:
I heard Fatin yelling: “Settler! Settlers!”. Salah jumped up and started running towards the village. I looked back and saw four settlers really close to me, so I had no choice but to run. They took us by complete surprise. They were holding sticks and the tip of one had nails in it.
I fled. They ran around throwing stones at us and shouting at the top of their lungs. Most of them were masked and some were carrying weapons.
One of the stones hit my back and another hit my leg. I fell down. My leg hurt so much that I thought it was broken. The settlers kept throwing stones at me, and a third one hit me in the back. I just managed to drag myself away, because of my injured leg. I called Fatin and he came to help me.
The plot in which the attack took place lies a kilometer northwest of Burqah. The settlement of Homesh (evacuated in 2005) was established a kilometer from the plot. About a week earlier, on 6 May 2020, settlers attacked two shepherds near Burqah, injuring one of them in the leg.