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.
Ras a-Tin, Ramallah District: Settlers armed with clubs enter family tent compound and attack family members, cracking the mother’s skull. Military arrests several family members who tried to defend themselves
Hajar Ka’abneh in hospital. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem
On Tuesday, 14 June 2022, at around 7:30 P.M., about 10 masked settlers armed with sticks and clubs drove up to the community of Ras a-Tin in four vehicles. They burst into one of the tents belonging to the extended Ka’abneh family, who number 13 members in total and moved to the community in 2019. The settlers began beating the father, Mustafa Ka’abneh (46), and his wife Hajar (48). Some members of the family fled the tent, while the three adult sons, Yasser (25), Ahmad (23) and Muhammad (22), threw stones at the settlers to try and fend them off. The settlers threw stones back, pepper-sprayed Mustafa Ka’abneh in the face and then hit him on the head with a stick. One of the settlers then hit Hajar Ka’abneh on her arm and head with a stick, cracking her skull. During the commotion, soldiers arrived at the community. They helped the settlers, fired in the air and chased after Ahmad and Muhammad Ka’abneh. They handcuffed and blindfolded the two brothers and put them in a jeep.
After the settlers and soldiers left, the family and their neighbors took Mustafa and Hajar Ka’abneh to medical clinics in the villages of Silwad and Turmusaya. From there, they were both taken to Falastin Medical Center in Ramallah. Hajar Ka’abneh, who suffered intracranial hemorrhaging, spent three hours in surgery and was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. On Thursday, 16 June 2022, she was transferred to the general surgery ward, and she was discharged a week later. Mustafa Ka’abneh was examined, his head was bandaged, and he was discharged on the night of the attack after being prescribed painkillers.
After he returned home, soldiers raided the house at around 4:00 A.M., arrested him, handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him to the military base in Beit El. At the base, Ka’abneh told a physician who checked him that he was assaulted, but the physician ignored him. From there, he was taken, handcuffed and blindfolded, without any regard for his condition, for interrogation at the Binyamin police station. He was interrogated for about three hours, during which the interrogator accused him of attacking the settlers. When the questioning was over, he was imprisoned along with his two sons in Ofer Prison. At the hearing in their case held on Thursday, 16 June 2022, at the Ofer military court, the judge advocate proposed to release the three on NIS 3,000 (~USD 880) bail each. The prosecution’s objection to release the sons was accepted. Mustafa Ka’abneh was released after posting bail, and his sons remanded in custody until 21 June 2022, when the judge advocate ordered their release despite the prosecution’s objection. The two were released after posting bail of NIS 3,000 each.
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The Ka’abneh family tent compound in Ras a-Tin. Photo: Amira Hass, Ha’aretz
Yasser Ka’abneh (25) described the attack on his family in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 16 June 2022:
On Tuesday, 14 June 2022, around 7:30 P.M., we were all in our homes on the farm except for my brother ‘Eid, who wasn’t back from work yet. Suddenly, a group of about 10 settlers drove into the farm in about four vehicles. They came towards our tents. Some of them were masked and holding sticks and clubs.
My father tried to stand in their way and find out what they were doing here, but they attacked him before he could finish the sentence. They beat him with sticks. When my mother tried to intervene, they attacked her too. They behaved like wild animals, beating everyone who happened to cross their path. My older brothers and I tried to help our parents, and the other women and children ran away. We tried to fend off the settlers by throwing stones at them. They threw stones at us, too, along with anything else they could lay their hands on. I saw a settler attack my mother. He hit her with a thick stick on the back of her head and her arm. She was screaming and trying to get away from him, but he kept on beating her. I tried to protect her and eventually managed to get him off her. One of the settlers sprayed pepper spray in my father’s eyes.
A few minutes after they started attacking us, a military jeep showed up. We hoped the soldiers would make the settlers leave, but they’d come to help them. They chased my brothers Muhammad and Ahmad, and one of the soldiers fired in the air to scare them. They caught both of them, tied their hands behind their backs, blindfolded them and put them in a jeep. The whole time, about 10 minutes, the settlers kept attacking us. After that, the settlers and the soldiers left the community together.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 29 June 2022, Muhammad Ka’abneh (22) spoke about the attack and his arrest:
The settlers attacked our parents so my brothers, Ahmad and Yasser, and I had to protect them. We started throwing stones at the settlers to keep them away. A few minutes after the attack started, a military jeep arrived with four soldiers, and one of them fired in the air to scare us. The soldiers joined the settlers who were attacking us. They grabbed Ahmad, handcuffed him, blindfolded him and threw him in the back of the jeep. Then five soldiers grabbed me, made me lie down on the ground, handcuffed me, blindfolded me and threw me into the jeep as well. While we were being arrested, the settlers kept on attacking and beating us and swearing at us without the soldiers intervening. The soldiers took us away and we couldn’t help our parents, who were bleeding while being beaten senseless.
First they took us to a settlement; I don’t know which one, because we were blindfolded. They put us in a room and took away our phones, ID cards, money and everything else we had on us. We stayed there for about half an hour, and then they took us to a military camp where they gave us a medical examination. I told the person who checked me that I needed to get to a hospital. I had bruises in various parts of my body, including from a strong blow to my chest, and my left hand was swollen. He ignored what I said. After about half an hour, they put us in a jeep and took us to the Binyamin police station. We were put in a small cell where they made us sit on benches, handcuffed and blindfolded. They left us there until 4:00 A.M. without giving us anything to eat or drink or letting us go to the bathroom. At 4:00, they started interrogating us. I was interrogated first. My blindfold was taken off, but the handcuffs stayed on. The interrogator let me consult with a lawyer first, who advised me to say what happened and not admit to anything I didn’t do. The interrogator accused me of attacking a an underage settler in pastureland. I denied it. The interrogation lasted about an hour, and there was a police officer there interpreting. At the end of the interrogation, I signed my statement after he translated it for me. They photographed me and took my fingerprints. Then they blindfolded me again and took me back to the holding cell.
They interrogated Ahmad for an hour or so. While he was being interrogated, at around 5:00 A.M., they brought my father in, after arresting him despite the state he was in. He was wounded in the head, bandaged and very exhausted, but they had no consideration for his condition whatsoever. After they interrogated all of us, at 7:30 A.M., they took me and my father to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, in handcuffs. The trip took about an hour. In the hospital, they separated us. I was examined and x-rayed and they didn’t find any fractures. They only gave me painkillers. I don’t know what kind of treatment my father got.
At around 11:30 A.M., they took us back to the Binyamin police station, put the two of us in a small holding cell together with my brother Ahmad, and gave us food and drink. In the late afternoon, they took my father in for interrogation. At 10:00 P.M., we were driven, handcuffed and blindfolded, in a long military jeep to Ofer prison. The next day, Thursday, they took us to court. The lawyer who represented us asked to have us released on bail, and the judge agreed to a bail of NIS 3,000 (~USD 875) each. But the prosecution appealed the decision regarding Ahmad and me. Father was released after posting bail, and Ahmad and I remained in custody until Monday, when we were taken to court again. This time, despite the prosecution’s objection, the judge decided to release us. We were released the next day at 9:00 A.M. after posting bail. The soldiers took us to the Beit Sira crossing, and from there we went home by public transportation.
