BBC witnesses Israeli settlers’ attack on Palestinian farm in West Bank

From among the broken remains of Brahim Hamaiel’s olive trees, in the occupied West Bank, we saw the masked men approach.

A dozen settlers, charging down from the illegal outpost above his farm and across the field towards us, moving fast and carrying large sticks.

A sudden and unprovoked attack.

Brahim had been showing us the trees he said had been hacked to pieces this week by settlers from the outpost.

His family have farmed olives here on land near Turmus Aya, for generations, making it a target for extremist settlers who think killing Palestinian trees and livestock will also kill the idea of a Palestinian State, by forcing residents like Brahim off their land.

“Fear is natural,” Brahim had told me, looking up at the ridge where tarpaulin flapped at the settlers’ lookout post in front of a few caravans and makeshift homes. “But there’s something stronger than fear that drives me to stay here – the scent of my ancestors and an attachment dating back hundreds of years – even if I pay the price with my blood.”

As the masked men run towards us, we pull back to the road and drive a safe distance away.

Within minutes, some of Brahim’s neighbours from the surrounding farms and villages gather with catapults and stones to confront the attackers.

Vegetation by the side of the road is set on fire, its smoke signalling the site of the confrontation, as settlers on a quad bike chase away a volunteer emergency crew trying to reach a farmhouse in the middle of the field.

This is now a familiar routine. Palestinians living in these villages south of Nablus say there are attacks and confrontations on their lands every week, and that settlers are using these kinds of tactics to take over the land, field by field.

But the speed and spread of this attack is breathtaking.

In little more than an hour, dozens of settlers had fanned out across the hills. We watched as they broke into an isolated building, and methodically set fire to vehicles and homes.

Shepherds on the furthest ridge rushed their flocks away, as the hillside behind them broke into flames, smoke billowing up from several places.

By then, Palestinians arriving from across the area to help their neighbours found the main access road blocked by the Israeli army, as the destruction continued.

One Palestinian was reportedly beaten by settlers, and the army later told us that both sides had hurled rocks at each other, and that Palestinians had burned tyres. It said four Israeli civilians received medical treatment at the scene.

Among the crowd waiting near the army roadblock, we found Rifa Said Hamail, her frantic gestures giving way to a warm smile and embrace when we spoke to her.

Rifa told us her husband was trapped in their farmhouse near Brahim’s olive farm, and surrounded by settlers, but that the army wouldn’t let her pass.

“Every other day the settlers do this to us – they attack us, cut down the olive trees, and burn the farms,” she said. “This is not a life. No one can stop them. We have nothing to resist them with. They have weapons, we have nothing.”

We later learned that settlers had torched part of their property, and that Rifa’s husband had been left with cuts to his face and leg, after being hit with rocks.

The Israeli organisation Peace Now, which monitors the spread of settlements in the West Bank, says the number of outposts – and settler aggression – has multiplied since the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, and the Gaza War that followed.

Since the beginning of last year, it says, some 100 outposts have appeared across the West Bank. It also found that hundreds of square kilometres of land had been taken over by settlers in the past few years using the same violent pattern of intimidation – encouraged, it says, by government support and a lack of proper law enforcement by Israel.

Last week, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced the creation of thousands of new housing units in a large West Bank settlement bloc further south, saying it would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Between 5-11 August, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs documented at least 27 settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in casualties, property damage or both, across two dozen different communities. These attacks, it said, led to the displacement of 18 households.

We weren’t able to speak to any of the settlers involved in the attack we witnessed. The local settlers’ council told us there were elements on both sides seeking provocation, which it strongly condemned.

Brahim told us he had filed two separate complaints about the attacks on his land, but few Palestinians here have much faith in Israeli justice or security forces, saying repeatedly that they protect only the settlers.

One of the volunteer emergency crews who came to help during the clashes on Saturday told me the Israeli army had prevented them from reaching the scene.

“We were trying to rescue the young men, when the army came, honking at us and telling us to get away from here,” Yahya al-Khatib said.

“We were volunteers wearing our vests. We’re not here to attack or harm settlers. We want to put out fires and treat injured people. But they [the army] stop us and stand in our way.”

Tensions between local residents and settlers are complicated by the increasingly heavy control of Israeli forces across the West Bank, which has seen the evacuation and widespread demolition of refugee camps across the northern West Bank.

From January to June this year, the UN found that 149 Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Nine Israelis were killed by Palestinians.

Hours after the clashes that erupted around Brahim’s farm on Saturday, another Palestinian casualty was added to that grim tally.

Eighteen-year-old Hamdan Abu-Elaya was shot and killed by Israeli troops in al- Mughayyir village, a few miles from Brahim’s field.

His mother told us he’d gone to see the fires lit by settlers nearby. “I raised him for 18 years, and he was gone in a minute,” she said.

We asked the Israeli army what happened. It said “terrorists” had thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails at troops in the village, and that soldiers had “responded with fire to remove the threat”.

Hundreds crowded into Hamdan’s house for his funeral on Sunday, as his body was carried in for his mother to say goodbye.

His father, Ameen Abu Elaya, raging to friends and family, said he refused to show the Israelis his tears.

“They thought if they killed our son, we would leave,” he said. “I will not shout and scream and say ‘why has he gone?’ I’m not sad that he passed. I encourage young men to do anything they can against the criminal occupier.”

At the local mosque, there was a hero’s welcome for Hamdan’s body as it was carried in for the funeral prayer – vast Palestinian flags hung alongside those of Fatah and Hamas from the rooves and windows; crowds lining the path of the bier.

In the language of this conflict, each birth and each burial only strengthens the ties to the land.

Additional reporting by Morgan Gisholt Minard