Wadi Qatunyah (al-Khalayel, al-Mughayir land), Ramallah District: Settlers assaulted a family and solidarity activists, injuring six people

On Sunday, 7 December 2025, at around 1:40 A.M., while the military was raiding the village of al-Mughayir in the eastern Ramallah District, about six settlers arrived by car at the residential compound of the extended Abu Na’im family in the al-Khalayel area on village land. Four foreign solidarity activists were at the compound with the family at the time.

The settlers, who were masked and carried clubs, began beating D., one of the activists who was sitting outside the residential compound, and she ran into one of the tents with the settlers chasing after her. Inside the tent, the settlers beat Fidaa Abu Na’im, 57, and her husband’s grandson, Rizeq, 13. The settlers also beat the three other activists with clubs, threw furniture and other objects at them, and stole Rizeq’s cellphone and a cellphone and laptop belonging to one of the activists.

Finally, one of the settlers threatened in Arabic to kill the family members if they did not leave within days, and then the settlers left.

The injured could not be evacuated until 7:00 A.M., because the ambulances could not get through due to the military raid on the village proper. They were taken to a hospital in Ramallah in the morning, where Rizeq got five stitches in his head and Fidaa was hospitalized, underwent catheterization and was discharged the next day. The activists’ wounds were bandaged and they were discharged that same day.

B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh collected testimonies from several people who were present during the assault:

Testimony of one of the activists, who asked to remain anonymous:

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On Sunday, 7 January 2025, four of us were with the Abu Na’im family in the al-Khalayel area, south of the village of al-Mughayir. We usually volunteer in Bedouin and shepherding communities that are facing displacement threats.

Before dawn, one of the activists, D., was sitting on a bench at the top of the path leading to the family’s tents, about 30 meters from the tents themselves, writing a report about harassment of the family members the previous day. There are several benches there where the family members and we usually sit in the mornings. I was sleeping in the family’s tent with the other activists at the time.

Suddenly, at 1:40 A.M., I woke up when D. called me and, when I answered, she said in a trembling voice, “The settlers’ security car is here,” and then she immediately hung up. After she hung up, I heard D. screaming loudly.

I got out of bed, stepped out of the tent and looked toward the top of the path. I saw D. running toward me with her hand on her head. Behind her, there were six or eight settlers who were running after her and caught up with her. They were wearing dark clothes and were tall and heavy-set.

The settlers reached me before they reached D. I was so terrified that I don’t remember what happened to D., but I clearly remember that they reached me first. As soon as they did, they started beating me with the sticks they were carrying and knocked me to the ground between our tent and the tent where Hajja Fidaa was sleeping. They kept beating me all over my body while I was lying there. Meanwhile, I saw D. arrive and try to pull them away, screaming loudly. Then I saw two settlers enter the tent where Hajja Fidaa and Rizeq were sleeping, and I saw D. enter Hajja Fidaa’s tent before them.

I got up after the two settlers went into Hajja Fidaa’s tent after D. Then I saw two settlers enter the tent where I’d been sleeping. There were two other women in that tent besides us. I went into the tent where Hajja Fidaa and the boy Rizeq were. When I went in, I found two settlers attacking everyone inside. I tried to stop them, but they were very violent. Another settler joined them and started throwing glasses that were in the tent at Hajja Fidaa, who was lying on the ground, and at D. and Rizeq as well. At some point, Rizeq tried to escape from the tent, and I went after him, afraid that the settlers would attack him. Then one of the settlers chased us and struck Rizeq on the head with some object, I couldn’t tell what it was, and knocked him to the ground.

The settlers also stole my laptop and my phone, as well as M.’s phone and Rizeq’s phone.

At around 7:30 A.M. that morning, after the occupying forces withdrew from the village, an ambulance arrived at the tent area and evacuated D., A., Rizeq and Hajja Fidaa to a hospital in Ramallah, where they received treatment.

Fidaa Abu Na’im, 57, a local resident:

I live with my husband, Rizeq Abu Na’im, 69, and his son, Hamam, 36, who lives there with his wife Fatimah and their five children. We live in tents made of tarpaulin sheets and metal poles on land we own in an area designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords. We have documents proving our ownership of the land.

About two and a half years ago, settlers set up a shepherding outpost about a kilometer south of our tents. This outpost forced my stepson, Ayham, 30, who lived in tents about 250 meters southeast of our tents, to leave the area and move to the village. Since then, they have been attacking our residential tents, trying to force us to leave, as they did to other Bedouin and farming communities. Despite all the attacks and harassment we’ve endured, we have remained steadfast to this day.

On Sunday, 7 December 2025, four international solidarity activists were present at our tent site, together with me and Hamam, his pregnant wife and their five children. My husband, Rizeq, slept that night in the area where we now keep our flock, closer to the village of al-Mughayir.

At around 1:40 A.M., while I was sleeping in the tent with Hamam’s son, Rizeq, 13, I woke up to shouting outside. I got up to see what was happening, and the moment I opened the tent door, I was struck on the forehead and fell onto Rizeq, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Rizeq woke up screaming, thinking, at first, that someone had thrown something at him. At the same time, two masked settlers, each holding a wooden stick, came into our tent. As soon as they were inside, they began beating Rizeq and me with the sticks.

At that moment, two activists came into our tent. One of them was bleeding from her head and hand. They tried to stop the settlers from beating us, but they kept hitting us and attacked the two activists who tried to help us with their sticks. Afterwards, Rizeq tried to run out of the tent to wake his father, who was sleeping in another tent, about 20 meters away from ours, but as soon as he reached his hand outside the tent, one of the settlers hit him with a large flashlight and knocked him to the ground. At the same time, the other settler kept beating us inside the tent. One of the activists left the tent and tried to pull the settler away from Rizeq. The two settlers who attacked us were big, tall men, and we couldn’t confront or resist them. One of them threatened me while he was beating me and said to me in Arabic in a low voice, “Leave this place or we’ll kill you,” and he repeated it more than once. When they finished beating us, they quickly left the area.

About 10 minutes later, my husband’s son Ayham arrived, together with his cousin and my husband’s brother. They tried to help us and called an ambulance to take us to a hospital, but the occupying army blocked the road leading to our tents. Later, I learned that at the same time as the settlers’ attack, the occupying forces were raiding the village of al-Mughayir and putting it under curfew, which prevented vehicles from reaching our tents.

At 7:00 A.M., we learned through a private group of village residents that the occupying soldiers had completely withdrawn from the village and that the road was open, and about half an hour later, an ambulance arrived at the tents of the Abu Naser family, about 500 meters north of our tents. Rizeq, two of the activists and I walked over there, and the ambulance took us to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.