In late March 2023, settlers established an agricultural outpost about 500 meters south of lands belonging to the village of Deir Dobwan. The military has since removed the outpost at least twice, but each time, the settlers returned, grazed their flock on village lands and harassed local residents. On 22 April 2023, B’Tselem documented an attack on shepherds by settlers south of the village. Following the attacks, the villagers began taking turns guarding his lands.
On Wednesday, 10 May 2023, at around 2:30 A.M., while about ten residents were on guard duty near the outpost, settlers fired at three of them who were patrolling the area. Two of the guards were injured by the gunfire: Radwan ‘Awawdeh (18) was wounded in his abdomen, and Fernando Massa (18) was wounded in the waist. Another guard, Ribhi Sarma (24), fell and injured his leg when he tried to escape. More residents arrived at the scene and evacuated the wounded to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on the day of the incident, Ribhi Sarma (24), a father of one, said:
On 23 March 2023, at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, a group of settlers established an agricultural outpost on the top of a hill called Karma, about half a kilometer south of our village lands. They brought 60 heads of sheep there, and started letting them loose to graze in village orchards and farm fields. Since then, there have been several clashes and confrontations between them and village residents, most recently on 22 April 2023.
The settlers go into agricultural areas, invade agricultural structures and also enter residential areas. Every time this happened, many residents of the village came out to the fields and drove them out, and they ran back to the outpost. The owner of the land on which the outpost was established, who is also a resident of Deir Dobwan, has filed several complaints with the Israeli police, and the outpost has been evacuated two or three times, most recently last Saturday, 6 May 2023, but the settlers come back very quickly. Now, village residents take shifts guarding because of the fear of settler attacks.
On Wednesday, 10 May 2023, at around 2:00 A.M., I was on guard duty with nine other village residents. We set up across from the outpost and watched the settlers’ movements. We saw them sitting in the outpost and walking around with flashlights. At around 2:30 A.M., all the lights suddenly went out. We were worried that they were planning something, but we couldn’t see anything in the dark. Ten or 15 minutes later, I went out with two other young guys, Radwan ‘Awawdeh (18) and Fernando Masa (18), to patrol the area a bit. The rest of the people stayed where we were sitting. We walked about ten meters to the south, and then we saw 15 settlers in three groups along about 50 meters. Each group had about five people, and some of them were holding clubs and stones. We saw them creeping towards us among the rocks and trees. After a few minutes, when they were about ten meters away from us, they opened fire and fired dozens of shots, some at random and some at us.
Radwan was wounded in the stomach and fell to the ground; then Fernando was wounded in the pelvis on the right side and fell next to him. I ran away, fell, and my right knee hit a rock hard. It was so painful I couldn’t get back up, and I called the other guards, some of whom had run away because of the shooting, while others hid in the area. A few minutes later, one of the guards, Hadi Hamed (20), called village residents and some arrived in cars. Hadi managed to drag me to the road, and from there, I was taken in one car and Radwan and Fernando in another to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. They got there right after me.
We had tests and x-rays at the hospital.
Later, I found out that after we were evacuated, a military force came to guard the settlers.