Sinjil, Ramallah District: Settlers attack family on way to their car, injuring mother and daughter

On 27 February 2022, at around 7:00 P.M., Ahmad Khalil (29) and his wife Maha Na’asan (26) drove to pick up Ahmad’s mother, his two sisters and his two nephews (8 and 9), who were visiting relatives east of the village. Since the road leading to the house is unpaved, they stopped about 100 meters away, called the family on the phone and asked them to come to the car. While they were waiting, the couple noticed three masked settlers approaching them with clubs and stones. They got out of the car and ran towards the house to warn the family. However, the settlers managed to grab Ahmad’s mother, Taghrid Khalil (50) and her daughter, Anwaar Khalil (28), and attack them, injuring them in several parts of their body. The settlers also smashed the rear window of the couple’s car. Soldiers patrolling in the area collected statements from the family.  

In a testimony she gave B’Tselem researcher Iyad Hadad, Taghrid Khalil described the attack:

Image

We left my brother’s house and walked towards the car, chatting, when suddenly we saw Ahmad and his wife running towards us and shouting, “Run, settlers!” Then, suddenly, there were two settlers in front of me and I had nowhere to run and no way to defend myself. Their faces were covered and they were holding clubs. A third settler was holding a flashlight and standing next to Ahmad’s car. We all started shouting. The settlers hit me with the clubs in my head and back. I tried to defend myself and cover my head. I also tried to fend them off and crawl away from them. They attacked my daughter Anwaar with a stone that hit her in the leg. Anwaar screamed, and then I saw the settlers running towards the road.  

Members of our family, area residents and soldiers arrived. After about 20 minutes, an ambulance came and took Anwaar and me to a clinic in the neighboring village, Turmusaya. We were examined and then transferred to hospital in Ramallah to get X-rays. Thank God, we had no fractures, but only bruises on our bodies. We went home after about an hour, and soldiers took our statements.