On 27 May 2022, at around 4:30 P.M., security cameras captured several settlers armed with metal batons entering a coffee shop where customers were sitting, and beginning to vandalize it. The settlers broke tables, a TV, a glass door and hookahs with their batons. Soldiers who were sitting in a military jeep about 30 meters away from the coffee shop ignored what was happening.
B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i collected testimonies about the attack on the coffee shop:
In a testimony he gave on 30 May 2022, Yusef a-Dik, a resident of Huwarah who works at the coffee shop, recounted:
At around 4:30 P.M., I was working at the coffee shop as usual. We had a few customers. Suddenly, I heard one of them shouting that settlers were there. I saw three masked settlers holding iron rods with a pointed edge. They bursts into the coffee shop and broke tables. On their way out, they broke hookahs by the entrance, as well as the glass door. Then they got into their car, which was parked on the other side of the street, about 500 meters away from the coffee shop.
After about 10 minutes, more settlers arrived in two vehicles, stopped in the middle of the road and blocked it. About four settlers got out, waving Israeli flags, and one of them fired two shots in the air from a pistol.
A few minutes later, soldiers arrived in jeeps and drove away the settlers who were blocking the road. The settlers left the area.
About an hour later, representatives of the Israeli DCO arrived, filmed the damage in the coffee shop and told us to go to the police station in Ariel to give statements. On Sunday, I went to the police station with the coffee shop owner, Firas ‘Odeh, and we gave a statement.
In a testimony he gave on 30 May 2022, the owner of the coffee shop, Firas ‘Odeh (37), a father of one, described:
I live across from the coffee shop. On 27 May 2022, at around 4:30 P.M., I was asleep at home when my wife woke me and said she could hear noises from the coffee shop. I got up immediately and went over there. I found destruction, and the floor was strewn with glass. There were several customers there, as well as Yusef ‘Abd al-Ghani Dik (25), who works at the coffee shop in the afternoon. They were all pale and frightened. I asked them what happened, and they told me that three or four settlers had burst into the coffee shop holding iron pipes and destroyed the tables, glass door, and hookahs at the entrance before fleeing towards the Yitzhar Square. The coffee shop is about 500 to 700 meters away from the square. There was a military jeep about 30 to 50 meters away from the coffee shop, which means they attacked it in full view of the soldiers.
While I tried to process what happened, several settlers arrived in two vehicles from the direction of the Yitzhar Square and parked them sideways across the middle of the road. Four settlers got out waving Israeli flags. One of them pulled out a gun and fired two shots in the air, and then a military jeep arrived and drove the settlers away, and they went back to the Yitzhar Square.
The settlers broke more than 20 hookahs, a glass door, three tables and a TV screen. I lost a lot of money.
On Sunday, I went with Yusef to the police station. We filed a complaint and handed them the video footage of the attack from the security cameras. I don’t expect them to catch the perpetrators, because they protect the settlers and encourage them to harm us.