On Thursday, 16 October 2025, at around 7:30 A.M., farmers from the village of Deir ‘Ammar, accompanied by about 50 solidarity activists, went to their farmland to harvest their olive groves. The community of ‘Arab a-Jahalin – ‘Ein Ayub, used to live in the area but was displaced in August 2025 by soldiers and settlers from a new outpost established in the vicinity, about 350 meters away from the farmland.
Since the outpost was established, the settlers have blocked the agricultural road leading from the village to the farmland with rocks forcing the farmers to park their cars near the roadblock. They gathered there and walked the rest of the way, around 300 meters, to their land.
Shortly after they arrived, seven soldiers arrived in two vehicles.
Because the farmers did not see settlers in the area, several families dared to separate from the other farmers and activists and went to their plots on their own.
About half an hour after one couple arrived at their plot and began picking olives, four settlers turned up. One carried a rifle, and another had a dog.
The settlers ordered the couple to leave, threatened them, spilled the bucket of olives they had picked and hit the wife, 51, on her shoulder. Forced to leave their land, the couple made their way toward the other farmers and activists.
When they rejoined the others, the couple saw that the soldiers were still there and had been joined by six settlers, one of them armed. The settlers threw stones at the activists and farmers, and the soldiers helped them and threw stun grenades at the farmers.
The settlers left the area shortly afterward.
Meanwhile, settlers forced another family harvesting at a distance from the group off its land, surrounded them and tried to snatch the sack of olives they had managed to pick. When the family members refused to hand over the sack, the settlers punched them and hit them with sticks and stones until one of the family members fell and lost consciousness.
About five minutes later, the settlers left, and the soldiers ordered all the activists and farmers to leave.
During the incident, five Palestinian farmers, two women and three men, were injured. One man required nose surgery.
B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh collected testimonies from several of the farmers:
A.D. recounted in his testimony:
On Thursday, 16 October 2025, at around 7:30 A.M., I went with my father, his wife, my brother ‘A., 45, and his wife to our land in an area called Qabrata, in the western part of the Deir ‘Ammar village land.
I had to park far from our land because the settlers had blocked the road leading to the farmland with rocks. We proceeded on foot, and when we got to the rock embankment that blocks the road, other landowners, farmworkers and solidarity activists from abroad were already there.
We stood there for close to an hour and waited for the rest of the farmers, and then several occupation army soldiers showed up.
When my family and I saw there were no settlers on our land, we walked over there, away from where village residents and activists had gathered. Our land is about 500 to 600 meters away from the gathering spot and about 500 meters from the outpost.
We started picking olives as soon as we reached our land. I noticed that the branches of many olive trees were broken, and I also saw signs that sheep had grazed there. We managed to work for about an hour, and because there weren’t many olives this year, we managed to harvest almost everything.
Suddenly, at around 10:30 A.M., three settlers came to our farmland with their faces visible. One of them was armed with a long rifle. They started talking to me in Hebrew, which I understand and speak well. The settlers told me that we weren’t allowed to be in this area because the land belongs to them and demanded that we leave.
Since we had almost finished anyway, we collected the fruit we had harvested and our tools and equipment and headed back east, toward where the residents and the activists were.
We walked about 350 to 400 meters, and the three settlers walked behind us and kept swearing at us in Hebrew and using foul language. We didn’t respond because we didn’t want any trouble with them. After we had walked that distance, six other settlers suddenly appeared in front of us. I saw them jump over a stone fence surrounding the plot that was in front of us. We found ourselves surrounded by nine settlers, three behind us and six in front of us. A young settler, whose face was visible, one of those who were in front of us, came up to me and demanded that I hand over the sack of olives we had harvested.
Meanwhile, the three settlers who had been walking behind us attacked my father’s wife and my brother’s wife. They pushed them both, knocking them to the ground. A brawl broke out between them and my father, and my brother ‘A. and I confronted the six settlers who had jumped us when we refused to hand over the sack of olives.
During the scuffle, I knocked one of the settlers to the ground, and then the settler with the rifle intervened and pressed the barrel to my head. ‘A. went up to him, pushed him, pulled him away from me and knocked him down. At that moment, another settler punched me hard in the nose. He had brass knuckles, and I fell to the ground, and after that, I didn’t know what was happening around me anymore.
Before the settler attacked me with the brass knuckles, one of the activists came and started filming the settler attack. I saw one of the six settlers beating her to stop her from documenting their attack.
When I came to, my face was covered in blood, and my nose was bleeding heavily. I could barely stand on my feet. The settlers had already gone away, so we continued walking toward our car.
We drove to the village clinic and from there to a hospital in Ramallah. Tests showed that I had a broken nose, and the doctors said I would need surgery. For my father, the tests showed a crack in the bone of his left arm, a wound and visible bruises under his right eye, and a cut on the right side of his jaw that required stitches.
H.B. recounted:
I am married and have seven sons, ages 13 to 33. Two of them are minors.
I live in the al-Harah area in the center of the village of Deir ‘Ammar, and I have a plot of land measuring 10 dunams (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares), of which 8 dunams are olive groves with trees that are 12 to 14 years old.
These groves are on the western side of the village, in an area called Khallet a-Najar, which was designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords.
In August 2025, settlers established a shepherding outpost in the Dhar al-Burj area and forced out an ‘Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin community (‘Arab al-Jahalin ‘Ein Ayub). The outpost was established at a distance of, at most, 600 meters from my land.
The village council called farmers to go harvest olives on the western side of the village on Thursday, 16 October 2025. That morning, at around 8:00 A.M., my wife, 51, and I left our home in the center of the village and drove there. The activity was coordinated with Standing Together organization because of the constant presence of settlers everywhere.
When we arrived, there were already about 200 residents and about 60 solidarity activists, Israelis, foreigners and Arabs. We left our cars 400 to 500 meters away from the farmland, like the other residents, because the settlers blocked the road to the farmland with large rocks. We continued on foot to the land on the other side of the roadblock.
When we reached the edge of the farmland, I saw a military vehicle approaching us from the direction of the outpost. It stopped 150 to 200 meters west of us, and two male soldiers and two female soldiers got out and walked toward us.
One of the coordinators from Standing Together spoke with them in Hebrew, which I understand and speak a little. I heard him tell the soldiers that we were there to harvest olives, and they made no objection or tried to stop us from going ahead.
Later, a white vehicle came from the direction of the outpost and approached where we were. It stopped next to the military vehicle, and three more soldiers got out and also walked toward us, so there were now seven soldiers there. But they didn’t try to drive us away or stop us from harvesting, and we didn’t see settlers in the area, so we felt relatively safe, and several families split off from the other farmers and activists and went to their land, including my wife and me.
My land is 300 to 350 meters away from where the residents and activists were. My wife and I went there alone, and when we arrived, we started picking olives right away. I noticed that the amount of fruit on the trees was less than usual, a sign of a weak season.
After we had worked for close to 30 minutes, four settlers suddenly showed up. One of them was armed with a long rifle, and another was handling a dog. As soon as they reached us, the settler with the rifle pointed it at us and shouted at us in Hebrew. The settler with the dog started spitting at us and cursing us in Hebrew. The armed settler also spilled the bucket we had used to collect the olives on the ground and shouted loudly at us to get out of there.
My wife was completely terrified and started crying. I held her hand and tried to calm her down. I left the olives we had picked, and all that mattered to me was to get my wife out of there. I walked in front of her, holding her hand, and the settlers walked behind us until we left the land.
Only later, after we had already left the area, my wife told me that the settler with the dog had hit her on her shoulder while they were walking behind us. She said she had not told me at the time because she was afraid I would react and the situation would escalate. As soon as we left my land, I saw the settlers turn toward a nearby olive grove that belongs to the D.M. family.
We continued walking to the spot where the village residents and the activists had gathered, and when I arrived, the seven soldiers were still there, close to the village residents. After a few minutes, five or six settlers approached, one of them masked and armed with a long rifle. They stood among the soldiers and started throwing stones at us from a distance of 10 to 15 meters. Village residents also threw stones at the settlers, and the clash went on for about 10 minutes.
Then, another military vehicle arrived from inside the village, that is, from the east, and five or six masked soldiers got out of it. The soldiers ordered us to stop throwing stones, but we told them we would not stop until the settlers stopped. Then the soldiers spoke with the settlers in an attempt to stop the stone-throwing attack, and they managed to get them to stop. Even so, the soldiers threw two stun grenades at us.
After the stone-throwing stopped, I noticed that the D.M. family were missing. When I asked about them, someone told me they were across from us, and then I saw them walking out of their plot with several settlers walking behind them. They advanced a little and then disappeared from our field of vision in the dense trees.
After five to eight minutes, ‘A., one of the D.M. family members, arrived, and I saw blood on his mouth. I asked him where the rest of his family was, and he told me that nearly 10 settlers beat them severely and that his father and brother had gone to the village medical center.
Ten to 15 minutes later, the occupation soldiers ordered us to leave for fear that the confrontation between us and the settlers would escalate.
Every year, I produce about 15 jerrycans of olive oil from my olive groves on the western side of the village. But this year, my trees were damaged, and I saw signs that the settlers graze their flocks in my grove.
I also co-own four dunams of olive groves with my siblings, about 700 to 800 meters west of the shepherding outpost the settlers established. In the past, we used to produce six to eight jerrycans of oil each season.
The village’s western farmland has about 3,000 dunams of plots, and this is an important part of the village. There are at least 5,000 olive trees in this area. But ever since the settlers established the shepherding outpost, we have had a hard time accessing this land.
