On Saturday, 24 June 2023, at around 8:00 A.M., six settlers entered community land in an ATV and drove between residents’ homes. One of the settlers snatched the cellphone of one of the residents of the community that documented the incursion, erased the pictures, gave it back to him and then left with the rest of the settlers.
About an hour later, about 25 settlers arrived at the village in some ten vehicles, some of them armed with firearms, and attacked the residents with stones. Some of the residents tried to fend off the settlers by throwing stones. Then, the settlers fired in the air. After about five minutes, a military jeep arrived at the community and the soldiers shot tear gas grenades at the residents defending themselves and chased after them. At the same time, the settlers attacked Salamah Zawahdeh (86) and wounding his head and back. Zawahdeh was taken to a hospital in Ramallah where was treated and received stitches for his head injuries. The settlers also set fire to one of the houses, broke the windows in Zawahdeh’s house and other houses, and shattered three solar panels. They also destroyed an outhouse.
The soldiers arrested three of the residents defending themselves, handcuffed them, blindfolded them and took them to the Jib’it military base. The three were detained at the base until the next morning, when they were transferred to the Binyamin police station, where they were interrogated and then transferred to the Etzion police station. They were imprisoned for a week until a military court ordered they be released on bail.
Eighteen families numbering some 150 people in total live in the community of Khirbet ‘Ein a-Rashash, northeast of Ramallah. In 2018, settlers established an outpost some two kilometers away from the community, and since then, the community’s residents suffer from harassment.
