Deir ‘Ala, Baryat Kisan, Bethlehem District: Another shepherding community in Area B forcibly displaced through state-backed settler violence
23 July 2025
The shepherding community of Deir ‘Ala (Baryat Kisan) was located in the agreed-upon reserve in an area classified as Area B, east of the village of Kisan in Bethlehem District. It comprised 27 families, numbering 85 people, including 40 children. The residents made their living from sheep and goat herding.
In 2022, settlers established the outpost of Noda B’Yehuda (Known in Judea in Hebrew) near the community, also in Area B.
Some families left the community on 7 October 2023, following settler threats.
On Saturday, 24 May 2025, at around 5:00 P.M., settlers accompanied by soldiers attacked the community, damaged vehicles and homes, and slaughtered eight lambs in one family’s livestock pen. After the attack, the women and children of the remaining 17 families moved to Kisan, while the men stayed behind for four days to guard the property. The women and children later returned.
On Wednesday night, 23 July 2025, about 30 settlers, some armed, arrived in the community with a flock of sheep, threatened the residents and told them they had to leave.
The residents informed the Palestinian DCO of the incident, and shortly afterward, a military vehicle arrived. The soldiers remained in the community for about half an hour and then left. Later that night, after the soldiers left, the settlers took over three homes belonging to families who had left and moved into them.
The next day, Thursday, 24 July 2025, 14 families began the process of dismantling their homes and leaving. That day, settlers came to the community and threatened to torch residents’ homes if they did not leave quickly. Later, the settlers threw stones at the residents while they were clearing out their homes, lightly injuring two of them. After the families left, settlers set fire to four homes.
On Saturday, 26 July 2025, community residents discovered that some of their homes had been destroyed by settlers.
On Sunday, 27 July 2025, the last three families left the community.
- Attacks on homes
- Damage to property (nonagricultural)
- Harm to farm animals
- Physical assault
- Verbal confrontations and threats