On Sunday, 29 October 2023, at around 6:30 P.M., masked soldiers arrived in the center of the village, entered the al-Hazalin family’s tent compound, rounded up men from the family who were there and ordered them to sit on the ground outside, facing the settlement of Carmel.
The soldiers collected their phones and looked through them. Whenever they found pictures or posts relating to Hamas or to the war in the Gaza Strip, they attacked the owner of the phone and forced him to delete the files. One member of the family is a police officer with the Palestinian Authority, and when a soldier found a photo of him holding a weapon on his phone, he cocked his rifle, pointed it at the man and called him a terrorist.
The soldiers held the men like that for about half an hour, pointing firearms at their heads, threatening to shoot them, accusing them of rejoicing in the Hamas attack on Israeli communities and ordering them to pick a side. The soldiers told the men to go to the settlement of Carmel, built next to their homes, and ask the settlers there for an Israeli flag to fly in the village center. They threatened to return the next day to check the flag was in place. In addition, a soldier ordered one of the family members to curse Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the residents of the Gaza Strip while filming him.
After about half an hour, the soldiers left the family’s compound and went over to the village community center, where they took apart shelves and removed Palestinian flags that were hanging there. They then left the village.
Two members of the family spoke about the incident in testimonies they gave B’Tselem field researcher Basel al-Adrah on 30 October 2023:
Tareq al-Hazalin (28) from Khirbet Um al-Kheir said:
On Sunday, 29 October 2023, around 6:30 P.M., I was sitting in a tent in the community with my brothers and cousins, when suddenly, a white pickup truck arrived and three masked soldiers got out. They came into the tent and asked us where the mukhtar was, pointing the flashlights on their rifles at us. I told them he was asleep, and then one of the soldiers said he was looking for my cousin ‘Eid (36). I sent one of the little kids to get him.
After that, they ordered us all to sit on the ground near the barbed wire fence around the Carmel settlement, facing the settlement so we wouldn’t see them. They took our phones and ordered us to unlock them. I didn’t have my phone on me. Every time they found a picture or a text relating to the war on a phone, they beat the owner with their weapons and forced him to delete it. When they got to my cousin ‘Adel (50), they found a picture of him with a weapon on his phone. He’s a police officer with the Palestinian Authority. One of the soldiers cocked his weapon and was about to shoot ‘Adel. When he told him he was a policeman, the soldier said: “No! You’re a terrorist!” and dragged him outside.
One of the soldiers pulled the magazine out of his rifle and asked what I was looking at. I said I didn’t know. He said they were bullets and that if he used them, he would split my head in half. Then he ordered me to translate that for everyone and tell them that if anyone spoke or turned their head, they’d get a bullet to in head. He was aiming his rifle at my head the whole time. I felt like those were the final moments of my life.
‘Eid came and the soldiers made him sit next to us. Then one of them said: “You sons of bitches! Are you happy about what’s happening near the Gaza border? Women and children killed! Are you happy about the things Hamas and Jihad did? This is Israel, not Palestine, and you are under our control...”. ‘Eid told them we are all against violence, and one of them ordered him to shut up and said that now we had to pick a side. ‘Eid told him he’s just a Bedouin shepherd and has nothing to do with anyone. One of the soldiers forced him to stand in front of the camera and curse Hamas, Jihad and the Gazans, condemn what happened and say he’s against the violence near the Gaza border.
Then the soldiers said they would be back at seven the next day, would shoot everyone dead if they didn’t find an Israeli flag flying here. We told them we have Palestinian ID cards, that we’re Pdothat we n’t have an Israeli flag. The soldier said there was no such thing as “Palestine” and ordered us to go to our settler neighbors and ask them for a flag.
Then they took my cousin Majed. They brought him back along with most of our phones about 20 minutes later, and we found out they’d questioned him.
‘Alaa al-Hazalin (24), Tareq’s cousin and a resident of Um al-Kheir, said:
On Sunday, 29 October 2023, at around 6:30 P.M., a white pickup van arrived at our community center. There was no one outside at the time, and the van drove towards our homes. They stopped by the main tent, where my brother Ijdei’ (17) was sitting. Three masked soldiers quickly got out of the van, went into the tent, took Ijdei’’s phone and ordered him to go outside and sit next to the barbed wire fence of the Carmel settlement, facing the fence.
Then they took me, another five of my brothers and three of my nephews out of our homes and made us sit next to Ijdei’. They took our phones, too, and ordered us to unlock them. Two soldiers looked through the phones, and another stopped the women and children from coming out of the tent they were sitting in. He pointed the rifle’s flashlight at them and yelled at them to shut up. I turned my head to see what he was doing, and he came up to me, hit me on the head with the rifle, and ordered me to turn back to face the settlement. He swore at me: “You are a dog, a whore...”
Then the soldiers started questioning us one by one. They demanded to know our names, what we do, where we studied and where we work. They found a picture of an armed settler on my brother Ahmad’s phone, and they made him stand up and hit him on the back with their rifles. Then they asked him where he got the picture, and he said it was from WhatsApp. They ordered him to delete it and said they didn’t want to see any pictures like that on our phones.
The soldiers asked who was in charge of the place, and my brother Majed said he was. They took him aside, and I heard them threaten him that if they found pictures like that on our phones again, or if we left the house, they’d make lots of trouble for us. After about 20 minutes, they gave us our phones back, all except Ijdei’. He refused to unlock his phone for them, so they said he didn’t need it anymore.
Then they went back to the community center, which was empty, and walked around there for a few minutes. I saw them throw shelves on the floor and take down the Palestinian flags. Then they turned the lights off and went to another part of the village.
