This wasn’t an uncontrolled mob of settlers. It was a well-orchestrated assault.

The Bishara brothers’ three houses in Al-Mughayyir, west of the olive grove their father planted decades ago

Amira Hass reports in Haaretz on 2 May 2024:

Residents of the West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir, who were attacked by settlers almost three weeks ago, had the impression that this wasn’t an uncontrolled mob. Rather, the assailants were well-organized, with a division of labor and prior planning.

The invading settlers split up into several units that operated simultaneously in several neighborhoods, residents said. Each unit then split into several smaller cells. One cell was responsible for throwing stones at car and house windows; another engaged in arson; a third, comprised mainly of younger boys, collected stones and handed them to the throwers; and a fourth, relatively large cell, was comprised of armed men who spread out across the area.

Thirteen homes were torched on the weekend of April 12-13, along with dozens of cars. Residents noticed that the invaders didn’t use lighters or matches, which take time to start a fire and don’t produce guaranteed results. Nor did they use Molotov cocktails, which don’t always ignite.

Instead, the witnesses said, they used a round object resembling a small gas grenade. A member of the arson cell would throw it onto the seat of a car, whose window had been shattered earlier by another cell, or into a home or balcony. The object would then be engulfed in flames, rendering it unidentifiable. After 30 seconds at most – enough time for the arson cell to flee – a huge fire would erupt.

The witnesses assume the round object had a safety clip of some kind that the assailant would release before throwing, while taking care to aim at flammable material like cloth. A tower of black smoke rose from every torched home and car. Al-Mughayyir residents said the flames only grew when they tried to extinguish the fire with water. A security source said that the army was not familiar with such a device.

On that weekend, the one in which teenager Binyamin Ahimeir was murdered near the outpost of Malakhei Shalom (“angels of peace”), east of Al-Mughayyir, more than 60 settler attacks were documented all around the West Bank, some more severe than others. In the two weeks that followed, 50 more attacks were documented. Four Palestinians were killed during those attacks, at least three of them by Israeli civilians and not by soldiers.

Consequently, a description of any single assault on Palestinians by settlers – Israeli civilians – is just a tiny sample of the daily reality experienced by dozens of villages and thousands of Palestinians.

The attack described below, on the families of three brothers from the Bishara family living in three separate houses, lasted no more than 10 minutes, according to their estimates. But at the time, it seemed to them as if it went on for at least two hours. Two weeks later, 30 members of the family still relived that attack.

During the attack, 3-year-old Diana covered her face with a pillow and pressed herself into the edge of the sofa

All three families live in Al-Mughayyir’s northernmost neighborhood – six adults and 13 children. The youngest, who was born prematurely, was luckily still in an incubator at the hospital. To the east of the houses is an olive orchard planted by the father of the brothers decades ago.

On Friday, April 12, the second day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, their older sisters came to visit with their children, along with their 80-year-old father, Ribhi, who lives in nearby Ramallah – another 12 people. The children played in the yards and trees, the adults chatted and drank coffee. They hadn’t yet eaten lunch. At some point, the three brothers went into one of the homes to discuss a family matter.

At around 2 P.M., the mosques’ loudspeakers announced that large numbers of settlers had gathered on the Allon Road to the village’s east. Residents immediately headed toward the eastern neighborhood to protect their relatives and friends.

“The Palestinian civil liaison committee told us that a settler boy was missing, and we should avoid friction,” recalled one brother, 37-year-old Haroun, a contractor who does electrical work and worked in Israel until the war began. “We concluded that the army was in control. A lot of soldiers were there.” People therefore began to return to their homes.

The IDF stated in response that “forces operating in the area were prepared in advance, and worked non-stop to protect the lives of civilians and their property.” In addition, the army stated that “security forces work to diffuse frictions using the means at their disposal, and if necessary, suspects are detained until the arrival of the police, who are responsible for handling the issue.”

Haroun, his wife Lina, and some of the children went up to the roof of their small house, as did Haroun’s father. The sisters and some of the other children stayed in the living room. They locked both bolts on their steel door and felt relatively safe.

Moussa, a 39-year-old math teacher, and his wife, Iman, locked both their doors and went with their two young children into a bedroom with an east-facing window.

The third brother, 47-year-old Bishara, is also an electrician who worked in Israel until October. He was on the balcony of his house, which has patio furniture and is covered by a pergola. His wife Nadia was inside with their three daughters, aged 15, 9, and 4, and two sons. One of the sons, 17-year-old Abdullah, has a congenital disability and isn’t able to walk on his own.

The three houses are separated by only a few meters. In front of each is a parking space. Bishara’s car is duty-free for the disabled and is mainly used to drive Abdullah to physiotherapy and school.

Even had the Bishara family thought it would be better to get into their cars and leave their homes, they couldn’t have done so. A military jeep entered their neighborhood from the north, stopped at the end of the road closest to the interior of the village and blocked the exit, they said. To some extent, its presence strengthened their belief that the army was in control, or at least wanted to be. Later, the jeep reversed along that road to the edge of the neighborhood, where the homes are built on a hill slope.

Bishara Bishara in his yard next to his burned-out car.

From this hill, settlers invaded the village back in January 2019. They killed Hamdi Naasan, who had gone out to rescue one of the men who were wounded when they tried to protect his fellow villagers. A monument was placed on the hill in his memory. And more than two months ago, settlers assaulted Imad Abu Alia, who was herding his sheep on that hill farther to the north. They also stole two of his sheep.

After backtracking up the hill, the military jeep was now on the path that ascends the hill to the northwest, not far from the memorial to Hamdi Naasan. Two other jeeps were also there, the family recalls.  “Suddenly, I saw the settlers simply bypass the jeeps,” Lina said. “And, like children who leave school in a swarm after class, they ran forward.” She then saw them split into several groups. A friend of hers whose house is on the edge of the neighborhood quickly fled with her dozen sheep.

The invaders wore civilian clothing and had covered their faces – some with shirts, some with black stocking caps. The mosque loudspeakers announced that the Abu Ata home, the one closest to the Allon Road, had been attacked. The soldiers in the jeeps fired tear gas at the Palestinians who had tried to protect the family.

Jihad Abu Alia, 25, was shot and killed by a settler. Several other residents also suffered gunshot wounds. The Israeli civilians broke into Imad Abu Alia’s sheepfold, stole his entire flock, and beat him until he passed out. The security source said that three suspects were arrested on that day, four were detained and released, and eight more have been arrested since.

Bishara, whose house is the northernmost of the three brothers’ homes, said he suddenly saw a masked man holding a stone. “I was certain it was one of our guys who had gone out to defend the village,” he said. “I didn’t understand why he was throwing a stone at my car. And then he also threw a stone at me, which hit my leg. One of my relatives yelled at me from a distance, ‘They’re settlers.’ It all happened in seconds.

“Several other masked men appeared. I ran inside. There wasn’t time to close the steel door. In my stupidity, I closed the sliding door. The guy threw a stone that shattered its glass. I immediately started to lower the shutters.”

Meanwhile, he saw another masked man throw something into his car. Flames emerged from it. The family stayed in the living room. “Our little Doha and Sajaa hid under a blanket,” Nadia said. Bishara added, “I was also afraid. How could I not be?”

As they stood in the living room with the fire crackling outside, young men from the village yelled at them to leave the house because the flames could spread to it. The flames reached the pergola, the patio furniture, the outdoor water clock, and the water pump and started to devour the bars on the kitchen window.

The family left the house through the back door and went through the neighbors’ gardens to the center of the village, which seemed safer. Their 20-year-old son Mustafa carried Abdullah on his back and was the first to leave. He walked until he reached the home of neighbors who drove Abdullah the remainder of the way in their car. The rest of the family ran behind them. “I didn’t know if the house would be there when we got back,” Nadia said.

Meanwhile, people who were present at the scene said, either the same masked men or others went to Moussa’s house, the middle of the three brothers’ homes. Ghanim, his 8-year-old daughter, began to cry and shake. His 5-year-old son Amar “restrained himself and didn’t cry, but I saw he was afraid,” said his mother, Iman. They went to an inner room and sat on a mattress. She hugged both children, while Ghanim continued to cry and shake.

Moussa went up to the roof and saw a masked man throw a stone at his car. The glass shattered. Then another group of masked men arrived, and one of them threw something that immediately ignited. Another armed man stood among the trees and shot at Moussa. “I immediately crouched down and took shelter behind the roof’s concrete barrier,” he said.

And then young men from the village came to rescue them. “I’m from a different village, I didn’t know them,” said Iman, Moussa’s wife. “I was afraid they were settlers. But then I recognized one of them and calmed down. They carried both children outside. I was so frightened my legs wouldn’t carry me. I could barely walk.” Only after they reached a relative’s house did 5-year-old Amar allow himself to burst into tears.

Haroun and his family, who hid on the roof, saw several dozen masked men dispersed among the trees and near the houses. Two of them had rifles, he said, including one who wore an orange vest. Some of the masked men carried clubs. Others had stones. The family said that some of the invaders also had handguns stuck in the waistbands of their pants.

Suddenly, something was fired at the house from the direction of the military jeeps that hadn’t stopped the invaders. They thought it was a rubber-coated bullet. Later, they discovered it was a sponge-tipped bullet, which broke the folding table outside the house.

Lina and the children left the roof, racing downstairs. She, her sisters-in-law, and their children split up between the small living room and a bedroom. They heard glass shattering. The ones who were still on the roof saw that when the stone-throwers ran out of stones, a squad of young people brought them more.

The invaders beat and kicked the steel door at the entrance until it burst open. Four unarmed masked men raced inside. Two went toward the kitchen and the bathroom. Lina, who is pregnant, and her sister-in-law Amal were standing behind the wooden door to the living room and leaning against it. But two of the invaders managed to break through, stones in hand.

Lina recounted how she held the now-detached door and tried to block the men who were throwing stones at anyone nearby. The 5-year-old twins, Shirin and Ribhi, hid under the coffee table. Three-year-old Diana covered her face with a pillow and pressed herself into the edge of the sofa. Julia, who is 8, and Laila, 11, crouched on the floor in the space between the furniture. All the children screamed and wept.

During the attack, 3-year-old Diana covered her face with a pillow and pressed herself into the edge of the sofa.Credit: Nedal Eshtayah
Lina said one of the invaders grabbed Rashid, her sister-in-law Amal’s 8-year-old son, and began pulling him. Amal grabbed her son and rescued him. “Our concern for our children gave us the courage,” Lina explained.

Later, the family discovered that the kitchen floor was covered with shards of glass, food items, and cooked food that had been taken out of the refrigerator and flung there. They also discovered that the microwave, a mirror, pottery, and a table had been broken. A stone had broken the TV. The family’s car was torched.

Haroun and his father raced down the stairs. One of the invaders threw part of the plastic table that was in the yard at the 80-year-old man. It hit him in the face, and he slipped and fell down the stairs. Haroun grabbed two plastic Coke bottles that were in a box on the stairs and threw them at one of the invaders.

By that point, rescuers from the village were already near his house, and the four invaders who were inside fled. The settlers outside also dispersed.

All three families stayed away from their homes, with relatives, for two days until Sunday. They didn’t know whether or not the fire had spread to their houses.

On Saturday, a funeral for the resident who was killed took place. Soldiers shot at the funeral procession, residents said. Young men ran to confront them.

As the soldiers fired, dozens of settlers once again showed up, this time from the hill to the west of the village. They ran eastward, back to the northern neighborhood that was now empty of residents. The soldiers shot tear gas grenades at them, but it didn’t deter them.

Once there, the settlers torched some more homes, as well as a storage shed, a pergola, two animal pens, fodder for the sheep, a jeep, and a fire truck that had arrived from the nearby village of Taybeh. They also torched cars belonging to residents of other villages who had come to the funeral.

“The hardest thing is the feeling of powerlessness,” Moussa said. “He came into my house and I couldn’t protect my family or myself. In their eyes, a person is worth nothing. Whether we existed or not made no difference. “How will I calm my daughter when I’m not calm? I’m in a state in which there is a discrepancy between the three foundations of my personality– feelings, thoughts, and actions. The feelings are what they are, and so are the difficult thoughts sparked by the attack. But I can’t express them in actions.”

Here, Lina interrupted. “We’re forbidden to defend ourselves; if we do, we’ll be arrested and tried as terrorists,” she said. “Or they’ll shoot us, like they killed Jihad Abu Alia.”

Moussa concurred. “If I express my feelings on Facebook and write what I think about the army and the settlers, they’ll arrest me for incitement,” he said. “This paralysis affects me. I can’t sleep at night. So how will I teach my students in class the next day? It all makes us think about emigrating.

This article is reproduced in its entirety