Mahmoud ‘Abbad, 60, a father of seven, described how settlers forced his sons and their families out of their homes in Jalud
I live in Jalud with my wife, ‘Aedah Mu’amar, 50, and our daughter Nivin, 19, and I work in agriculture. My sons Wael, 33, and Qays, 32, live in the homes we built for them on our private land northeast of the village.
My wife ‘Aedah was alone in our son Wael’s house [...] I heard her screaming and calling for help and saw some of the settlers throwing stones at her. One of them also pulled out a knife and waved it threateningly, as if he was going to stab her.
Today, Monday, 27 April 2026, at around 2:20 P.M., while I was plowing the land next to my 32-year-old son Qays’s house to prepare it for the summer sowing, about nine or 10 settlers suddenly arrived, some of them masked, from the direction of an outpost that settlers set up last Sunday on our land. The settlers started throwing stones at us, and we threw stones at them. My wife ‘Aedah was alone in our son Wael’s house, which is a few meters away from Qays’s house. I heard her screaming and calling for help and saw some of the settlers throwing stones at her. One of them also pulled out a knife and waved it threateningly, as if he was going to stab her. During the attack, I called village residents to come and help us. I also called the governor of Nablus, the Palestinian DCO and the Israeli police, who told us they were on their way, but no official body came.
After about 15 minutes, my wife’s brother, ‘Atef Mu’amar, 49, from Qaryut, arrived, along with several young men from her family to help us drive the settlers away, but the settlers attacked them with wooden sticks. They hit ‘Atef on the head and face, and he fell to the ground. Meanwhile, my son Wael also arrived, and he managed to pull ‘Atef away from the settlers. ’Atef’s face and head were bleeding. At that point, the settlers backed away, and Wael drove ’Atef in his car to the hospital in Nablus.
In the meantime, the settlers went on to attack homes on the hill opposite us, which is called Jabal al-’Abbad. Later, more settlers arrived from the direction of the settlement Esh Kodesh, and by then there were more than 50 settlers in the area, working in coordination to attack homes there. Then, two army jeeps drove up from the direction of the tent and stopped next to our homes. Two soldiers got out, but did nothing. After about 10 minutes, the soldiers got back in and continued towards the road leading to the village, blocked the villagers' way, stopped them from reaching us and fired tear gas at them.
In the meantime, after the settlers finished attacking the homes on Jabal al-’Abbad, they came back and attacked us again at the homes of my sons Qays and Wael. We tried to defend ourselves as best we could. I was hit in my left shoulder by a stone, but I stayed there because these are our homes.
Later, we saw smoke rising from the ground floor of Qays’ house. I’d been keeping an unlicensed car on that floor, which I used to drive between my children’s homes since the outpost was set up, for fear that the settlers would burn my legal car. We found that they put a hole in the wall to get in and torch this car, even though last week, we sealed the windows on that floor with stones to prevent them from entering. They managed to get inside anyway and set the car on fire. The smoke was very thick, and the steel door got too hot to touch. We had to make another opening to put out the fire, but the car was already completely burned.
After that, the army jeeps that blocked the villagers’ way before came back our way. The settlers withdrew towards the outpost, and the army did nothing to them and didn’t arrest them, unlike how it treats Palestinians.
We realized we couldn’t stay in these homes anymore because we’re not protected. [...] We started clearing out the houses. We got my sons’ wives and children out a few days ago already.
We realized we couldn’t stay in these homes anymore because we’re not protected. I can’t have my sons and their families stay there without protection. We started clearing out the houses. We got my sons’ wives and children out a few days ago already and moved them into their parents’ and families’ homes.
Our family has scattered all over the place. My wife and I also left our home inside the village, and now we spend our nights in Wael’s and Qays’s homes with them, to protect them.
Our situation is very difficult. We’ve been attacked so many times that I can’t even remember all the incidents. Last Friday, my son Yusef, 26, got married, and on the wedding day we all cried, because his brothers, Wael and Qays, couldn’t attend the wedding for fear that if they left their homes, the settlers would burn them or take them over.
This evening, a police car, a DCO car and a military vehicle arrived. They filmed and took the recording device, DVR, for the security cameras in Qays’s house.
What are we supposed to do? Stand around and do nothing? Sit back and let the settlers break into our homes and slaughter our women and children? Even our right to defend ourselves has been taken away.
Every time settlers attack us, we call the DCO, but they always arrive late. Even when they do arrive, they tell us we’re not allowed to do anything to the settlers, not even throw a single stone at them. I said to them: “How can that be? They are attacking us. How can we not defend ourselves?” One of the soldiers told me: “If you throw even one stone at them, we will arrest you.” So what are we supposed to do? Who protects us? No one, not the Palestinian Authority, not the Israeli military, not anyone else. The residents of our village, who try to come and help us can’t reach us because the soldiers immediately close the road, prevent them from coming, fire tear gas at them and attack them. Meanwhile, we’re not allowed to defend ourselves and our homes. What are we supposed to do? Stand around and do nothing? Sit back and let the settlers break into our homes and slaughter our women and children? Even our right to defend ourselves has been taken away.
My son Wael filed a complaint yesterday at the Binyamin police station, and a few days ago, I tried to file a complaint at the Ariel station, but they didn’t let me in, claiming there was no vehicle to take me from the gate to the station. I left without filing the complaint after waiting for three hours.
Two days after the outpost was established, the settlers offered to buy our house. They said: “We’ll pay you whatever you ask,” and named a large sum. One of the settlers, together with his wife and children, pointed at Wael’s house and said: “This house is mine; all of this is mine, and all of this belongs to Esh Kodesh.”
Two days after the outpost was established, the settlers offered to buy our house. They said: “We’ll pay you whatever you ask,” and named a large sum. One of the settlers, together with his wife and children, pointed at Wael’s house and said: “This house is mine; all of this is mine, and all of this belongs to Esh Kodesh.” I said to him: “If it’s yours, why do you want to buy it?”
My wife and I built these homes in 2019 so we could marry off our children and help them settle down. I inherited the land from my grandfather and father, and it spans 12 dunam (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares). It wasn’t cultivated, and we rehabilitated it and planted about 150 olive trees that are more than 12 years old, which now produce about 16 jerrycans of olive oil in the harvest season. This is what we have left after the outpost was set up around our land. My brothers and I have about 250 dunam of land that we haven’t been able to access since the settlements Ahiya, Shilo, Adei Ad and Esh Kodesh were built. They’ve been taking over the land year after year since 2000, and we have hardly anything left.
I thought this land of mine was safe because it’s in Area B, but apparently it isn’t.
In the past, I worked in construction, but since 2001, I’ve switched to agriculture and sheep raising with my wife, and that’s become our source of livelihood. Recently, we had to sell 25 head of sheep because there is no one to take care of them after the attacks. We kept only three sheep, hoping the situation improves and we’ll be able to start over. The land and the sheep are our only source of income.
- Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh on 27 April 2026