On Wednesday, 1 October 2025, at about 4:30 P.M., a 64-year-old father and his two sons in their 30s, residents of East Jerusalem, went to visit a family-owned plot of land near the city of Halhul and invited the owner of the adjacent plot over for coffee. During the visit, the family members replaced the lock on their gate, which the neighbor had seen settlers break a few weeks earlier, before trespassing onto the plot with their flock.
About 15 minutes after the landowners arrived, settlers came to the site on an ATV and a white all-terrain vehicle, filmed the three and swore at them. One of the sons called the police and was told the matter was being handled. The settlers left, but about ten minutes later, they returned, rammed the locked gate with the ATV, broke the new lock and forced their way in. The neighbor who had been sitting with the father and sons, and his family, who were harvesting grapes in the adjacent plot, fled the area.
About nine settlers, masked and armed with sticks and wooden clubs, guns (apparently airsoft guns) and pepper spray canisters, assaulted the father and his two sons, pepper-sprayed them and beat them with clubs all over their bodies. One settler fired plastic or metal pellets at the father, who was recovering from cardiac catheterization, hitting him in the neck. Another choked one of the sons after he had been beaten and fallen to the ground, while other settlers kicked him.
The assault went on for some time as the three shouted for help, until the settlers finally left. One of the sons called the police again to report the assault and was told to wait patiently, and only about 20 minutes after the settlers left, soldiers and police officers arrived at the scene, along with three of the assailants. The soldiers aimed their weapons at one of the sons, and when the other pointed out to a police officer that the three settlers who had arrived with them were among the assailants, the officer chastised him for telling him how to do his job.
The police officers and soldiers ordered the three to wait in their car, and after about half an hour, they drove to the Sa’ir junction, where an Israeli ambulance came for them and took them to a hospital in Jerusalem. At the hospital, one of the sons was diagnosed with a broken elbow, a cut to his left arm that required five stitches, and bruises to his head and shoulder. The father and the other son were diagnosed with multiple contusions to various parts of their bodies from the blows they had sustained.
The following morning, they were discharged from the hospital during the night, and returned home, and that evening they filed a complaint against the attacking settlers at the Beitar Illit police station.
K.K., a 64-year-old, Jerusalem resident and father of four, told B’Tselem field researcher, ‘Amer ‘Aruri, in a testimony he gave on 8 October 2025:
On Wednesday, 1 October 2025, I went with two of my sons, ‘I.K. (36) and M.K. (31), from Jerusalem to Hebron to visit relatives who had invited us for dinner. My son M. drove his own car, and on the way, we stopped in Ras al-Qadi, at a seven-dunam (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares) plot of land that belongs to my brothers and me. It is uncultivated, surrounded by a fence and has an old stone structure on it.
At about 4:30 P.M., we arrived at the land, and I called the owner of the adjacent plot, who lives in Halhul, told him I was there and invited him over for coffee. He arrived with his sons, brother and cousins, who took the opportunity to harvest grapes on their plot. He sat with us for a while and told us he had seen settlers break the lock after my previous visit to the plot, and then he went over to his land. A month earlier, someone had also stolen the windows, door and an electric motor from our stone structure, but no one had seen the theft.
Shortly after we arrived, I saw settlers coming from the hill opposite us, about 200 meters away, some on an ATV and some in a white all-terrain vehicle whose make I don’t remember. They stopped in front of the gate to the plot, which I had already locked with a new lock, and filmed my sons and me with their phones, as one of them said, “Arab terrorists.” We did not talk to them so as not to get into trouble, and my son M. called the police and reported that they had entered our land. The police said the matter was being handled, and the settlers left.
About ten minutes later, the settlers came back in the same white vehicle and ATV, and the settler driving the ATV sped toward the locked gate of the plot and rammed into it hard, tearing the lock from its place. Then, about nine settlers went onto the land. They were masked, some with shirts over their heads and some with masks, and armed with sticks, clubs, small guns and pepper spray canisters. The neighbors who were harvesting grapes in the adjacent plot immediately fled, having themselves been assaulted a few days earlier.
As soon as the settlers reached us, they pepper-sprayed my sons and me. Then they started beating us hard and brutally with clubs. My son ‘I. shouted in Hebrew, “My father has heart disease, he had surgery a few days ago, please don’t hit him!”, and then one of the settlers pulled out a small pistol and shot plastic or metal pellets at me, and I felt my whole body shudder as two of the pellets struck my throat and neck. The settlers also struck me with a club on my left arm, on my right arm near the wrist, and on my chest, and my sons were also pepper-sprayed and beaten with clubs on various parts of their bodies.
The assault went on for many minutes, and M. fell to the ground from the force of the beating, and then one of the settlers pressed his forearm on M.’s neck and tried to choke him. He was kicked while he lay on the ground too. They beat ‘I. with clubs and threatened him at gunpoint. We cried out for help, and the settlers left, and M. called the police again to report that we had been assaulted, only to be told, “It takes time; wait patiently.”
Only about 20 minutes after the settlers left, two police officers and about ten soldiers arrived. To my amazement, the soldiers aimed their weapons at my son M. and had brought three of the attacking settlers with them. I clearly recognized them by their clothing: army pants and black shirts identical to those they had worn during the assault, and M. heard one of them tell the soldiers that he had “lost his glasses in the area” and wanted to look for them, effectively admitting he had been on the plot earlier. ‘I. told the officers that those three had taken part in the assault, and one of the officers replied, “Don’t teach me how to do my job!”
‘I. collapsed and passed out, apparently because of the shortness of breath caused by the pepper spray and the blows he had sustained, and one of the soldiers gave him first aid until he regained consciousness a few minutes later. Then, the police officers and soldiers took our ID cards and ordered us to go to our car and sit there. We stayed in the car for about half an hour and then drove to the Sa’ir junction, where an Israeli ambulance came for us. We parked our car in the area, and the ambulance took us to Sha’are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem.
At the hospital, we underwent tests and received treatment for the injuries the settlers had inflicted on us. We stayed there until 5:00 A.M., and then went back home, without ever making it to the dinner in Hebron liked we’d planned. The evening after the assault, we went to the Beitar Illit police station and filed a complaint against the settlers.