Every few months, the Israeli military blocks off the entrances to Kifl Hares, puts up roadblocks throughout the town and forbids residents to move around on foot or by car. All this is intended to enable Jewish worshippers to visit tombs within the town, which they believe to be the holy resting sites of Yehoshua (Joshua) Bin Nun and Caleb Ben Yefune. The worshippers stay by the tombs for entire nights.
These incursions make life unbearable for the town residents – men, women, children and the elderly. Large military and Border Police troops arrive hours before the Jewish worshippers, roam the streets and order residents to stay indoors. In some cases, they throw stun grenades to remove residents who refuse to comply. Shops are ordered to shut down for the day, incurring losses.
The worshippers travel between the sites tightly guarded by the forces. They are rowdy, leave filth behind, and sometimes swear at residents and throw stones at their homes and at other property.
On 24 December 2020, at around 2:30 A.M., dozens of settlers arrived at one of the tombs and threw stones at the home of Sawsan Buziyah (41). Her brother Jalal (44), his wife Muna (33) and their five children were sleeping over at Buziyah's request, as she was afraid to be alone during the settlers' incursion.
Over the course of the incident, Jalal's 11-year-old daughter Sama was injured in the back by a stone the settlers threw as she was crossing the courtyard to reach the bathroom.
Two military jeeps arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the attack, and the soldiers removed the settlers within minutes.
In a testimony she gave B'Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb'i, Sawsan Buziyah described the settlers’ attack on her home:
Since my parents passed away I've been living alone in the center of town, no more than 50 meters from the tomb of Salah a-Din. On Thursday afternoon, 24 December 2020, at around 4:30 P.M., I saw a photo on social media of a large bus of settlers standing at the entrance to our town. The post said that the settlers intended to raid Kifl Hares, but the military was preventing them from entering. Settlers from all over the West Bank often come here to pray at Muslim tombs, which they claim are theirs. I told my brother Jalal (44) that settlers were about to arrive, and he said he'd come with his family and spend the night with me.
Jalal arrived with his wife Muna (33) and their five children. I stayed up with Muna and my three nieces, Nada (14), Sama (11) and Jana (7), and we sat in the inner courtyard. I was very nervous and didn't want to go to sleep.
At 2:30 A.M., we heard voices coming from the street. I looked out from the second floor of the house and saw about 15 settlers making their way towards the town square. They came out of one of the alleys and passed right by the house. They looked at the house, which scared my nieces. A few minutes later, I saw many more settlers gathering at the town square, as though they were waiting for something. They looked over at our house, maybe because it was lit up and most of the houses around us are old and deserted.
About 10 minutes later, the settlers started throwing stones at the house. We quickly put my nieces in one of the rooms and woke my brother, so he'd go up to the roof. My brother shouted at the settlers to go away and stop throwing stones. In response, some of them knocked over a pile of bricks nearby and started throwing bricks at the house. One of them threw bricks at the door. The thuds were very loud and scared the girls. They thought the settlers were going to raid the house. Nada froze and couldn’t move. Sama had to go to the bathroom. Her mother asked her to hold it but she couldn't, so I went outside with her.
To get from the bedroom to the bathroom, we had to go through the yard. When we went outside, a settler threw a stone that hit Sama in the back. She screamed in pain. I dragged her quickly to the bathroom and saw she only had a small wound on her back. I tried to calm her down, and we went back to the room. My brother Jalal tried to call people from the town to come and help, but no one wanted to leave home because there were a lot of settlers there. My neighbor later said to me, "We heard you screaming, but we couldn't do anything. My husband wanted to go outside but I said, 'Where are you going? Don't you see how many of them there are? They'll kill you.' Forgive us, but we had no choice." I do forgive them. What could they have done?
About 10 minutes later, two military jeeps arrived and several soldiers got out. At first, the settlers continued throwing stones in front of the soldiers, but after about 10 minutes, the soldiers drove them away.
The settlers broke the spigot by the front door. Thank God, they didn't cause any more damage to the house. I had the house renovated a few months ago. I even replaced the windows and covered them with an iron mesh screen to protect them from settler attacks. It wasn’t the first time settlers have thrown stones in the town, but it was the hardest because they all concentrated on my house. Samah refused to go to hospital because she’s afraid of hospitals. The wound on her back hurt for a few more days. It was a terrifying night. My nieces were in shock and can’t stop talking about that night.