In 4 minutes, Israeli settlers descended from the hills, burned down an entire West Bank Bedouin community

Pogromists burning homes and throwing stones in Mukhmas

Yarden Michaeli and Matan Golan report in Haaretz on 5 February 2026:

The Bedouin community of Mukhmas in the central West Bank has been beleaguered by settler violence for months. Three times now, settlers have arrived at night and set the community on fire, but the people there have clung on.

Evidence from videos, satellite images and eyewitness accounts show how one of the most ruthless attacks on this small community took place last month as part of a recent wave of Jewish terrorism in the West Bank. We see how in just a few minutes the attackers – about 20 have been seen in various frames of footage – set fire to a number of structures and escaped.

The man who was arrested after the January 17 attack was the owner of a vehicle used by the assailants to escape. The police say he was released because he was not in Muhkmas that night.

Footage of the onslaught from several angles shows assailants moving from structure to structure and systematically setting them on fire. Two additional structures on the other side of the community were also set alight. At one burning structure, a man and a woman were prevented by the attackers from escaping the fire. When they managed to get out, they were beaten by the attackers.

A week ago, settlers returned and set fire to structures. There have been other violent incidents in between. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers prevented members of the community from rebuilding the homes that were burned, claiming that this was a closed military area.

These attacks began a few days after the settler outpost of Kol Mevaser was put up, part of a ring of outposts and settlements surrounding Mukhmas. Kol Mevaser is notoriously violent and recognized as such by the Israeli defense establishment – an unusual move.

Videos and photos of all the attacks on Mukhmas, as well as other assaults around the West Bank, appear in the social media accounts of right-wing activists in the West Bank. These posts are often accompanied by a caption telling how “Happy Jews” have set fires or attacked Palestinians.

One video in recent days hails the repeated burning of Mukhmas. The video features a song: “We go down to the villages / We burn and slaughter and start a war / An alarm goes off and everybody gathers; a party is starting.”

Despite the recurring violence and this claim of responsibility, the Israeli authorities are not providing protection to the people of this Bedouin community. This conforms with a pattern of failing to enforce the law after settler attacks and Jewish terrorism on Palestinians around the West Bank.

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