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.
A truck torched by settlers in the town of Silwad. Photo courtesy of town residents.
On Friday, 3 January 2025, after Friday prayers, about fifty farmers from the town of Silwad went to plow and work their lands west of the town, after a shepherding outpost settlers set up in the area in early December was removed by the Civil Administration the day before. The farmers, who were previously attacked and expelled when they tried to work their lands, hoped that they would be able to do so safely with the outpost gone.
Around 3:00 P.M., the farmers noticed two vehicles, one belonging to the military, driving towards them, with about 20 masked settlers in tow. Some were armed with clubs, sticks and pepper spray. When the vehicles were near the farmers, the soldiers began firing in the air for no reason. Meanwhile, about 20 more settlers showed up. The farmers started backing away, leaving behind their cars and tractors. At the same time, the settlers began attacking the farmers with stones and clubs and setting their vehicles on fire in front of the soldiers. Some of the farmers ran away, while others threw stones at the attacking settlers in an attempt to repel them, but eventually, they too retreated. Several farmers who did not manage to escape before the settlers arrived were severely beaten with iron bars and stones and evacuated for medical treatment. Soldiers present at the scene did not prevent the attack or detain any of the attackers, and the farmers were forced to retreat to the town until the settlers and soldiers left.
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A tractor set on fire by settlers on Silwad lands. Photo courtesy of town residents
The town council reported that nine farmers were injured in the attack and treated at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, and that eight vehicles were set on fire.
S.M., 52, a resident of Silwad, said in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh:
As soon as I arrived, villagers who were already there told me that settlers and soldiers were advancing on us from the top of the hill where the outpost was built. I saw an army jeep and a car with a settler in it, and about 20 masked settlers armed with sticks and iron rods advancing on foot behind them. When they got within 10-15 meters of me, the soldiers started firing live rounds in the air, with no warning and without any of the residents doing anything to justify it. They fired sporadically, every few minutes, and the residents started running away, leaving their vehicles behind. I was closest to the settlers and the army and found myself standing alone among them. I couldn’t run away like the others did. About 16-18 vehicles belonging to the residents were left there, parked on the dirt road. Just then, as the soldiers were all around me, the settlers climbed a small hill and started throwing stones at the fleeing residents and chasing them at the same time.
At that point, more settlers arrived, and there were 30-40 of them. Some of them vandalized the cars that were parked there, and others chased and attacked the residents. The settler in the car was driving between the groups of settlers.
About 10 minutes after the attack began, I saw the settlers taking bottles out of the bags they had on their backs and throwing them at the cars. They set six cars on fire in front of the soldiers, who did nothing and only fired at the residents.
One of the soldiers, who was swearing at the settlers, ordered me to stay close to him, which I did, but then an officer in the jeep ordered him and the other soldiers to advance toward the residents, who were about 100 meters away from me, and I stayed behind, but then the settlers started coming towards me, holding up sticks and pepper spray. I tried to get away from them because I was very scared, but I tried not to show it to them. When the settlers got to me, the soldiers were about 10 meters away from me. The settlers said nothing and one of them just immediately hit me hard on the head, above the eye, with an iron bar. I raised my hand to protect my head and then took another blow from the bar on my right arm. At the same time, another settler threw a stone at me from point-blank range. It hit my left eye, and another settler pepper-sprayed me in the eyes. The soldiers didn’t intervene or help me. The beating continued until I fell and passed out.
I woke up when the soldier I was next to before the attack poured water on my face and head. I tried to get up but fell over again. The soldier tried to support me. He brought another bottle of water and started pouring it on my face too. He told me in Arabic, “Wake up, Hajj, everything is okay, and if you think something’s wrong with you, call an ambulance.” I called a relative and asked him to call an ambulance, and then I passed out again. I don’t know how the conversation ended, because when I woke up two hours later, I was already at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. At the hospital, it turned out I had broken teeth in my upper jaw and wounds in my mouth, two broken ribs and bruises on the right side of my body, scratches on my arms, a wound on my forehead above my right eye, and swelling and severe edema in my left eye.
