Kobar, Ramallah District: Israeli settlers brutally assaulted a Palestinian sheepfold guard and stole most of the flock

On Saturday, 10 January 2026, at around 4:00 A.M., four settlers arrived at a sheep farm on Kobar village land. Only the guard, Raed Qatami, a resident of al-Jalazun R.C., was on the premises at the time, sleeping in a room on the farm.

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The settlers broke down the door of the room where Qatami was sleeping, and three of them, all masked and one armed with a large hammer, went inside. They assaulted Qatami, beat him, and then one of the settlers grabbed his head and began wrapping adhesive tape around his entire body. The settlers then called for others to come, and a settler named Zvi, known to Qatami from the area, arrived with his face exposed, carrying a rifle.

The settlers continued their assault on Qatami, choking him and hitting him with the hammer. They then went out of the room and left the farm, apparently taking most of the flock from the sheepfold with them.

Qatami managed to free himself from the adhesive tape the settlers had wrapped around his entire body only after about two hours, and then discovered that the flock had been stolen, as had the security camera recorder and his mobile phone, which had been in his pocket.

Qatami walked to Kobar, where he called the farm owner. He arrived with his family members, and one of them took Qatami to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah.

In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh, Raed Qatami, 44, a father of four, recounted:

On Saturday, 10 January 2026, when I was sleeping in a private room on the farm, I woke up at around 4:00 A.M. from loud knocking on the door of the room. I asked who it was and someone replied: “Israel Defense Forces.” I immediately tried to call Thaer Sh’aban, the owner of the farm, and when he didn’t pick up, I put the phone in my back pocket. After that, I looked at the security camera monitor, but it was dark, and I didn’t know why.

Suddenly, the door of the room was forced open, and to my surprise, it wasn’t soldiers who came in, but people in civilian clothes. Three masked men ran toward me, and then I realized they were settlers. One of them was holding a hammer. The moment I understood, I picked up a cooking gas cylinder to defend myself and managed to hit two of them with it, but the third settler grabbed my head and started sticking adhesive tape on it. I heard him calling the others, including someone named “Zvi,” and then another settler entered the room, armed, with his face exposed, and whom I know very well from the area. He’s known among us as Ghazal (the Arabic translation of Zvi, deer in English), and I know that he is responsible for the outpost the settlers established in 2025.

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I know this settler because over the past eight months, he’s been coming to the farm often and wandering around the area surrounding it.

Other settlers also came in, all of them masked except for Zvi, and their number went up to seven or eight. The settlers continued sticking adhesive tape all over my body, then they knocked me to the ground and started beating me and hitting me with the hammer. They tried to tie my hands behind my back, and when I tried to resist, they bent one of my left-hand fingers. After that, they managed to tie my hands behind my back and kept wrapping my entire body with adhesive tape until they covered it completely. I was lying on the floor, and one of them put his hand on my neck and choked me while I cried out and begged them to stop. Zvi sat on top of me to pin me down. I saw a settler take a knife from the room and come up to me, but Zvi told him in Hebrew: “No.” I think that settler wanted to stab me, but Zvi didn’t let him. After they finished wrapping my body with adhesive tape, one of the settlers checked my pulse, and then they left the room.

During the assault, I didn’t think I would come out of that room alive. After they left, I tried for a long time to free myself from the adhesive tape they had stuck all over my body. It took me about two hours. I was exhausted beyond description. When I went out of the room, I discovered that the sheep had been stolen from the farm and that they had also taken the surveillance camera recorder. I was bleeding a little from the nose, and I discovered that my phone had been taken. I had no other means of communication and no vehicle, so I had no choice but to walk to the village.

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It took me at least 20 to 25 minutes to reach the house of someone in Kobar whom the owner of the farm and I know well. I knocked on the door and asked him to call the owner of the farm and tell him that settlers had attacked the farm, beaten me severely and stolen the flock. The owner of the farm arrived with several of his relatives, and one of them drove me to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah. They did X-rays and tests and found bruises and severe hematomas in different parts of my body.

After this assault, I quit my job. This time, by the grace of God, I was spared and came out with only very minor injuries from this attack, but next time it could cost me my life. Although this job was my only source of income, I had to quit. I’m the father of four children, and they can’t lose me.