A holiday at a settler outpost: a raid, beatings and a near-fatal attack
Gideon Levy reports in Haaretz on 26 September 2026:
It’s the same story week after week, village after village, family after family, wounded person after wounded person – and sometimes, the dead as well.
From the northern part of the West Bank to its south, across its length and breadth, the same violent pattern of behavior is playing out repeatedly these days, fomented by the inhabitants of more than 200 new settler outposts that have recently taken over privately owned Palestinian land on a tremendous scale. When Palestinians try to defend their lands, or to access them at the very least – settler-marauders attack them viciously.
This week, it’s Beitillu, located west of Ramallah, home to 5,000 people. One can see the towers of Tel Aviv shimmering on the horizon from here.
Lying before us, almost motionless, on a bed that’s been moved to the living room of his home, is Mohammed Radwan, a 24-year-old officer in the Palestinian security forces. Radwan, who is not married, is the latest victim, as of now, of settler violence in Beitillu, and one of the worst cases. One leg is bandaged along its entire length – he’s waiting for a second operation on it – and doctors had to make a hole in his chest to treat damage done to his lungs. After settlers beat him mercilessly, they stuffed dirt into his mouth, suffocating him. They then covered him with a sheet of metal, perhaps thinking he was dead.
Below the village is Wadi Zarqa, a stirring sight replete with ancient stone terraces interspersed with cultivated fields and orchards. A few farmhouses are scattered in the fields; an abundance of natural springs well up from the earth.
On the hill that overlooks the valley from the other side are four new structures belonging to the outpost of Or Binyamin, which, despite its name (Light of Benjamin), has inflicted only darkness and disaster on the valley and local farmers. The site is also referred to as Beitillu Outpost, which is fitting as it’s the name of the village whose lands it has taken over by force and by violence.
The settlers also seized one of the Palestinian farmhouses in the valley and moved into it. Other structures in the vicinity have been abandoned; according to residents of Beitillu, their contents were looted some time ago by settlers. In recent weeks, villagers haven’t dared to approach their land in order to till it.
Or Binyamin seized the hill above Wadi Zarqa on June 7, less than four months ago, and took control over some 500 dunams (125 acres) of land below. At first the Palestinians were still able to access their land, to till and irrigate it. But the first assault wasn’t long in coming – just days after the outpost sprouted up. On that occasion its residents attacked two farmers and threatened them: “If you come back here again, we will slaughter you. This time it’s a warning, next time you’ll die. From now on, this is our land, given to us by God – not yours.
More raids on the valley followed, in which the farmhouses were cut off from the power grid. Besides the plundering of property, the settlers began to graze their herds on Beitillu fields, destroying the crops. Villagers organized lookouts in shifts, from the hills across the way.
A month ago the settlers beat two of the lookouts, and torched their cars. Three weeks ago, 10 masked settlers, one armed with a rifle and the others carrying clubs, arrived at the local soccer field on the outskirts of the village; they stole solar panels and security cameras. According to the residents, the damage totalled nearly 100,000 shekels ($33,000). Since then the field has been guarded 24/7.
Mofida and Ribhi Radwan are the parents of Mohammed, the wounded young man. She’s 61, he’s 65; they have eight children. Ribhi “works in Wadi Zarqa,” as he puts it in fluent Hebrew, recalling other times when he worked with Israelis.
On September 12, the first day of the Jewish New Year, the family awoke as usual. They planned to risk accessing their land so as to water their vegetable crops. Since the settlers tore out the electricity lines there, the family has been taking a generator to the valley in order to operate the water pumps, then taking it back to the village to safeguard it. Mohammed, his brother Haitham, 35, and two other relatives proceeded to the valley, about 4 kilometers from their home. At about 1 P.M. the sons called their father to inform him that there were no settlers in the area and told him he could bring the generator. Ribhi and two other sons drove down to their field with the generator.
No sooner had they arrived and unloaded the machine, when five settlers rushed at them brandishing spiked clubs. They smashed the windows of the car belonging to Ribhi’s brother, while he and his wife were inside; somehow they managed to drive away. Then another group of settlers arrived, and all of the farmers in the vicinity scattered every which way.
Ribhi fled toward a dirt mound, but seven settlers suddenly emerged and threw stones at him; he says he fled, turning his head from side to side to avoid being hit. He cried out for help and Mohammed and Haitham, who were some distance away, sprang into action.
In the meantime, yet another settler posse appeared. Stones were thrown by all sides. A few settlers pursued Haitham, others chased Mohammed. After Haitham ran up the hill toward Beitillu, they all set upon Mohammed. According to Ribhi, Haitham and Mohammed himself, some 15 settlers pounced on him. One held a gun to his head.
They beat Mohammed with their clubs until he collapsed; also, we are told, they rummaged through his pockets and made off with two mobile phones, an ID card, a Palestinian Authority officer’s card and a wallet containing 1,000 shekels ($330). Lying on his bed now, Mohammed adds that they also pepper-sprayed him.
His consciousness began to fade. As he lay wounded, they beat him repeatedly, all over his body, until he pretended to be dead. They left, but quickly returned. One of them, whom villagers identify by name as the leader of the invading settlers, said in Arabic: “This is an officer in the Palestinian Authority – kill him.”
Mohammed says he thought he was going to die. “They beat me with the intent to kill. They were like monsters. Without any feelings,” he says, adding that he mumbled the verses from the Quran that are recited in the moments before death. The settlers then stuffed dirt into his mouth, to suffocate him. Afterward they covered him with a sheet of tin that was lying nearby “the way you cover a dead body,” according to Ribhi. Then they left.
Mohammed with his parents. Doctors made an opening in his chest to release the air trapped in his lungs. Credit: Alex Levac
All this time there were no Israeli army or police forces in evidence. No one had summoned them – the villagers knew they wouldn’t rescue them, and the settlers apparently thought that they were getting along very well without them.
“I couldn’t do anything. I could hardly breathe, I couldn’t talk or shout for help,” Mohammed recalls in a weak voice.
Haitham, who was beaten in the legs by the settlers before he got away from them, was the first to reach Mohammed. He pulled him to a concealed spot behind a tree, in case the marauders returned. He called his uncle, who’s also called Mohammed, and is 45 years old, to bring his car in order to evacuate his wounded brother, who was in serious condition.
Mohammed was taken to the local medical clinic and an ambulance was summoned to take him to Istishari Hospital in Ramallah; it took 45 minutes for it to arrive, because one of the two metal entry gates to Beitillu was blocked off, as usual, and the driver had to use roundabout routes. At Istishari he was placed in intensive care and hooked up to a ventilator. His chest was punctured by physicians in order to release the air trapped in his damaged lungs. A few days later his shattered right leg was operated on. His next operation is in a few weeks. In the meantime he’s virtually immobile, and has to use a wheelchair if he leaves his bed.
After a week at Istishari, Mohammed returned home. His family has yet to file a complaint about the brutal incident earlier this month with the police. Haitham went to do so, early the next day at 8 A.M. at the Mateh Binyamin police station, waited three hours later and was then told that he would have to submit the complaint at the Modi’in llit police station, which he plans to do as soon as possible.
Epilogue
Midday this past Sunday, while we were on the hill that overlooks Wadi Zarqa and has a view of the settler outpost across the way, we learned about a shooting attack by Palestinians at the nearby settlement of Neve Tzuf, at a spring that the settlers have taken over by force. A settler was killed. We hurried to our cars, knowing that both entrance gates to Beitillu would be quickly closed by the army because of the incident, as at all the other villages in the area.
When we arrived at the closed gate, a female soldier and three male soldiers were standing there. After a brief telephone consultation with their commanders, and being convinced that we were “totally Jewish,” the soldiers agreed to open it for us. However, Muhammad Rumana, a field researcher for B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, who was accompanying us and driving behind us in his car, was stuck in the village until midnight, along with numerous others who had wanted to leave.
It was the eve of Yom Kippur in the Hebrew year 5787, at the hour when the gates of heaven are closing.
This article is reproduced in its entirety