In recent years — and especially since 7 October 2023 — there has been a sharp increase in both the number and severity of settler attacks against Palestinians. The incidents reported on this blog do not reflect all incidents of settler violence in the West Bank, but only those that B’Tselem was able to document and investigate.
al-Jaba', Bethlehem District: Dozens of settlers raided the village, attacked residents and homes with stones, injured a toddler, threw Molotov cocktails into houses, and vandalized and set vehicles and property on fire
Fire that the settlers lit in the village. Image courtesy of the residents.
On Monday, 17 November 2025, after the military uncharacteristically evacuated one outpost out of the roughly 350 outposts Israel has established across the West Bank, settlers, as expected, went on rampages in Palestinian communities.
At around 5:30 or 6:00 P.M., dozens of settlers, most of them masked, raided the village of al-Jaba', west of Bethlehem. The settlers entered the village from the west, advancing on foot from Route 367, which leads west toward the Green Line. During the events, the settlers attacked at least five residential homes. They threw stones at houses and cars, and injured a one-and-a-half-year-old in the face by throwing a stone at the car in which she was arriving at her grandmother’s home.
The settlers smashed house windows with stones and threw Molotov cocktails that caused fires to break out in four homes, which were extinguished by residents. In the yard of one home, settlers set fire to three sofas, a wooden chair, and laundry hanging on a clothesline. They also set fire to five vehicles, three of which were completely burned and two partially damaged, and vandalized three additional vehicles with stones. In addition, settlers damaged security cameras installed on one of the homes and sprayed the graffiti “Regards from the detainees.”
During the attacks on the homes, settlers told residents they must leave their homes and the village and threatened to return and set the houses on fire if they did not. They attempted to break into one home and threatened the family who lives there, saying that if they did not leave, their fate would be the same as that of the Dawabsheh family, whom settlers burned to death in the village of Duma about 10 years ago.
Only at around 9:30 P.M. did Israeli military and police forces arrive at the village and take testimonies from residents.
On 18 November 2025, B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri collected testimonies from al-Jaba' residents:
Salem Masha’lah, 26, an English teacher, recounted:
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Settlers in the village during the attack. Screen capture from a video that documented the incident, courtesy of the residents
On Monday, at around 5:45 P.M., I arrived at my parents’ home together with my sister, Amani, 34, and her daughters, Yafa, 4, and Sama, 1.5, to celebrate my mother’s birthday. When we drove into my parents’ yard, I was shocked to see masked people running after our car and throwing stones at it. I didn’t understand what was happening or who they were. My sister and the girls started screaming and crying. My sister pulled me back and tried to stop me from getting out of the car because she was afraid that if I did, the people – who turned out to be settlers – would attack and beat me.
The stones the settlers threw at us shattered the car’s windows. One stone hit baby Sama on her left cheek, which immediately swelled up. I was hit by a stone in the shoulder, and it still hurts. Thank God my sister and four-year-old Yafa were not injured.
The attack lasted about 5 minutes. When I got out of the car, I saw my brother and brother-in-law’s cars were burning. My family and I managed to put out the fire in both vehicles, which were both damaged on their exterior.
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"Hello from the detainees” - Graffiti the settlers sprayed on a wall in the village
A.M., 50 recounted:
I was in the kitchen with my youngest daughter, 15, when we suddenly heard stones hitting the house’s exterior, from the direction of the open porch, which has no windows. My daughter and I started screaming and crying, and I called my husband, Ibrahim, to tell him what was happening. My daughter told me that a fire had broken out in the stairwell because of a Molotov cocktail the settlers had thrown. Thank God there were no flammable materials there, and I managed to get the fire under control and put it out.
The settlers also burned three sofas and a wooden chair that were outside the house. I saw flames in three cars parked in front of the house: my husband Ibrahim’s car, his brother Musa’s car, who lives nearby, and my husband’s nephew’s car. I think there were dozens of settlers and that the attack lasted between 10 and 20 minutes.
Sarah Abu Luha, 55:
On Monday, at around 5:30 P.M., I was at home with my daughter-in-law, Fatimah, and four of my grandchildren. I heard banging and noises outside the house and saw on our security cameras dozens of masked people in the yard of the neighboring house, which belongs to Ibrahim, my husband’s brother. They sprayed something on Ibrahim’s car, on my husband Musa’s car, and on the car of my husband’s nephew, who lives in Jerusalem. We were all very frightened.
The settlers then threw a Molotov cocktail at the living room window of my house, and the burning bottle fell into the living room. Fatimah and I immediately put out the fire with water. The attack lasted about 15 minutes.
Shortly before the attack, the wife of another one of my sons, who is also named Fatimah, had gone back to her home, which is next to ours, to get a few things for her children.
Fatimah Hamad, 25, a mother of two:
On Monday, at around 5:30 P.M., I walked from my mother-in-law Sarah’s house to our home to bring a few things for my children, who are two- and three-years-old. As I was about to return to my mother-in-law’s house, I heard a window shatter in the main entrance door of the house. I saw someone masked moving outside the door. I was scared and went to hide in the bedroom. From there, I could see four masked people – who later turned out to be settlers – spraying something on my bedroom window. I screamed and started crying when I saw a fire starting by the window.
After that, the people left the area, but I was afraid to go outside and walk back to my mother-in-law’s house because I feared they were hiding around the house. After about 15 minutes, I heard people saying that the settlers had gone down to the lower neighborhood to attack more homes in the village. I felt some relief because they had moved away and headed toward my mother-in-law’s house. When I arrived, I found the clothesline in front of the house on fire. The settlers had set fire to the dry laundry hanging on the line.
Ahlam ‘Adawi, 51, a mother of three, recounted:
On Monday, at around 5:30 P.M., I was at home with my husband and our three children, ages 14 to 16. I heard stones hitting the house. When I looked through the front door’s window, I saw four people holding stones and sticks and throwing stones at the house. They threw a Molotov cocktail through the living room window, and a fire broke out inside the house. We poured water on the flames until we managed to put the fire out.
We were all terrified and extremely stressed, especially after I saw the settlers smash the window in the front door with a stone. One of them pushed his hand through the window and tried to open the metal bolt of the door. My 14-year-old son grabbed the key that was hanging on the wall and locked the door. The settler sprayed gasoline onto my son’s hand through the window.
After that, another settler looked in through the window of the room where we were sitting and said to me in Arabic: “This time you were spared. Next time we will burn you like the Dawabsheh family.”
Wafa Bahar, 32, a mother of two, recounted:
On Monday afternoon, I was at home with my children and my husband’s sister, who’s in high school. I heard stones hitting the walls of the house, and then I someone masked peering in through the stairwell window. He said to me in Arabic, “This is the first round. Next time we’ll come back and burn your house. You won’t live here in safety!”
I heard a siren, like a police siren, and the settlers ran off, apparently because they thought the police were arriving. Later it turned out that one of the village residents had played a recording of a siren. The attack lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. After the settlers left, I realized they’d smashed three windows in the living room and the stairwell with stones and broken two security cameras around the house.
* That same evening, dozens of settlers attacked the community of Um al-Butum in Wadi Sa’ir, threw stones at homes, attempted to set a house on fire, injured two women and a child with stones, and torched cars.
