‘Asirah al-Qibliyah, Nablus District: Israeli settlers attacked and set fire to two houses, one with the occupants still inside. Soldiers escorting them threw stun grenades and fired tear gas canisters at the defending residents
26 February 2023
On Sunday, 26 February 2023, at around midday, Palestinian militants shot and killed Israeli brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, who live in the settlement of Har Bracha, while the two were waiting in a traffic jam on a road that runs through the town of Huwarah. That afternoon, hundreds of settlers, escorted by soldiers, invaded several neighborhoods in the town of Huwarah as well as the villages of Za’tara, Burin and ‘Asira al-Qibliyah, and carried out a pogrom.
At around 4:00 P.M., dozens of settlers, escorted by dozens of soldiers, attacked two neighboring houses in southeast ‘Asirah al-Qibliyah. The settlers threw stones at the homes, and the soldiers threw stun grenades and fired tear gas canisters at the defending residents. One of the families evacuated, and then the settlers set fire to both houses while a mother and baby were still inside one of them. Soldiers threw a stun grenade and fired a tear gas canister at the father, who tried to rescue his family members. The father finally made it to the house, where the furniture was already on fire, and rescued his wife and son. In the other house, the electrical panel was burned, cutting off power.
The settlers and soldiers left about an hour later, and local residents put out the fire with the help of a fire truck that managed to get there about 15 minutes later.
B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i collected testimonies from the occupants of the homes on 3 March 2023:
Lubna Saleh, 47, a mother of four from ‘Asirah al-Qibliyah, said:
On Sunday, 26 February 2023, at around 4:00 P.M., when I was at home with my children, ‘Assem (22), ‘Amer (21), and Muhammad (8), and my sister-in-law’s children, Tala (6) and Mazen (4), my neighbor told me settlers were gathering around our houses. ‘Assem was on the top floor with a carpenter, installing a bedroom. I told him, and he went up to the roof to see what was going on. He told me there were lots of settlers and soldiers near the house. We quickly shut the doors and windows.
The settlers started attacking the house with stones right away. I heard the stones hitting the walls and the settlers’ shouting. I was very afraid for the children. ‘Assem said it was dangerous and we’d better leave the house and walk over to a relative’s house that’s far from where the settlers were gathering. We left through the back porch and climbed down the ladder because the settlers were near the main entrance. I kept looking back and saw the settlers attacking our house and the neighbors’ houses and the soldiers firing tear gas canisters. It wasn’t the first time settlers attacked our house, but it was the most violent and frightening attack. It’s impossible to describe what went on there.
We got to our relatives’ house and stayed there for about an hour until we saw, from there, that the settlers had withdrawn. We went back home and saw, from a distance, smoke rising from the direction of the house. I was very stressed. I was afraid that the house had burned down, but when we got closer, I saw the fire had only damaged the electrical panel in our house, cutting off power. Our neighbor Bilal ‘Asayrah’s house took most of the damage. The carpets there caught fire, and the contents of the house burned.
Bilal ‘Asayrah, 31, father of an eight-month-old baby, said:
While I was at work in the western part of the village, I heard a loud noise, like a stun grenade. I was worried something was happening near our house, and I called my wife, who told me settlers were attacking the area. I drove home right away because my wife and our little son were there alone, and I was afraid for them. I parked my car 300 meters away, fearing that the settlers would damage it, and proceeded on foot. There were hundreds of settlers in the area, escorted by dozens of soldiers.
When I was about a hundred meters away from the house, I saw the settlers had already reached the entrance along with 10 to 12 soldiers. Two settlers were holding objects which they threw at the house. One of the soldiers saw me and threw a stun grenade and a tear gas canister in my direction, but I wasn’t hurt. I turned around and kept walking towards the house through the fields until I reached it from behind. I propped a ladder up on the balcony, climbed up and went in. I saw there was a fire in the house already. It consumed the carpet and shoe cabinet in the living room, and we couldn’t walk through there anymore. I got my wife, Nadine Ahmad (26) and our eight-month-old son, Adam, out, and we went to our neighbors’ house. In the meantime, the settlers and the soldiers had already left, and with some residents who came to help, we took the bars off the living room window to put out the fire. About 15 minutes after the settlers left, a fire truck came, and the firefighters helped us put out the fire.
The whole house was covered in soot. The furniture, the walls and the ceiling. It’s been five days since the attack, and my wife and I are still apart. I’m with my family, and she and the baby are with hers because we can’t live at home. I started fixing the house and painting the day after the attack. I paid NIS 600 (NIS 1 = USD 0.27) for one day of work, and I still have to clean the bedroom and the furniture there. My wife is very afraid to go back home and says she’ll come back only if we build a wall around the house, which will cost about NIS 10,000. I’m not willing to put my family in danger, but I also can’t abandon the house. This is no way to live. I work as a laborer and make NIS 3,500 a month, and I can’t afford the expenses. What can I do?
- Damage to property (nonagricultural)
- Physical assault