Mikhmas Roundabout, Ramallah District: Israeli settlers attack Palestinian car passengers with stones, injuring a child, in front of soldiers and police officers

On Friday, 7 April 2023, at around 2:30 P.M., the J’afreh family, Nihad (40), his wife Amneh (29) and their children Zeinah (12), Huda (10), Yusef (8) and Yasmin (14 months), from Bir Zeit, were traveling by car on Route 60 to the village of a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah south of Jerusalem for the Iftar meal. As they approached the roundabout near the village of Mikhmas, the family noticed dozens of settlers, some masked, attacking passing Palestinian cars with stones, in front of Israeli soldiers and police officers. J’afreh wanted to turn back, but a Border Police jeep blocked his path.  

Three settlers came up to the car, and one of them broke the right side-view mirror with a club while the other two kicked the front bumper. J’afreh drove forward quickly, and then the settlers in the roundabout attacked the car with stones, smashing the windshield and the left rear window. Glass shards hit Huda, who was sitting in the back, in the arm and leg. 

Police officers who were on site asked J’afreh to follow them to the Binyamin police station to file a complaint, which he did. When they arrived at the station, the police called an Israeli ambulance, and the crew checked Huda and Yasmin. Later, a Palestinian ambulance arrived as well, and its crew also checked the girls and treated Huda’s wounds.  

After waiting for a long time, the family was told by police officers that no investigators were at the station as it was Friday and that they could wait until an investigator arrived. J’afreh decided not to wait, and the family continued on their way to a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah. The girls visited a clinic the next day in Ramallah to rule out any glass shards penetrating their eyes.  

In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad, Nihad J’afreh (40), said: 

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On Friday, 7 April 2023, at around 2:00 P.M., I was driving with my wife and children from our house in Bir Zeit to a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah, south of Jerusalem, where my family lives.  

At around 2:30 P.M., I saw about 50 young settlers, some of them masked, about 15 meters away from the Mikhmas roundabout, near the settlement of Kochav Ya’akov. I stopped for a few minutes, and then a car with a yellow [Israeli] license plate drove past. The woman in the passenger seat in that car had a hijab on, and the settlers started attacking it with stones. 

I wanted to turn back quickly, but a Border Police jeep was behind me, and then I saw settlers advancing towards us. One settler broke the right side-view mirror, and two others started kicking the front bumper and wrecking it. I drove forward quickly, and then the settlers who were near the roundabout started attacking us with stones, which hit the windshield and the left rear window. It was scary, and everyone was shouting in the car. Our little kids were crying, and I asked them to get down and hide on the floor until I could get past the danger zone. Huda was injured by glass shards in her left arm and leg, and she was bleeding. 

After I’d gotten a little farther from the roundabout, a police car that was standing about 40 meters away from the roundabout followed me, and the officers called me to stop. I stopped about 500 meters away from the roundabout, and one of the police officers demanded my ID, even though they could see the state of the car and the frightened children. We told them what happened, and they asked me to follow them to the Binyamin police station to file a complaint. We drove there and waited in the yard. The police called an Israeli ambulance, which arrived an hour later. The crew checked Huda and Yasmin. They didn’t find anything but said to be safe, they should be taken to a hospital for a check-up to make sure they didn’t get glass in their eyes. A Palestinian ambulance came too, and its crew cleaned up Huda’s wounds and checked her eyes out of concern she might have gotten glass shards in them but found nothing. They also suggested we take her to a hospital to make sure everything was okay. 

In the meantime, we cleaned the glass shards from the car and kept waiting for them to let us file a complaint. In the end, the guard called us over, gave me back the ID card that the officer took from me on the way and told me there were no investigators because it was Friday. He said they had asked an investigator to come and take the complaint, but they didn’t know when he would arrive. It was already 5:00 P.M., and I decided not to wait. We went to a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah to try and save what was left of our day, but we were all in a bad mood, and the little kids were very frightened. We’d lost our appetite for Iftar. 

The next day, I took Huda and Yasmin to get checked at a clinic in Ramallah, and they found no shards in their eyes.