On Tuesday, 27 March 2024, at around 2:00 P.M., while brothers Rami (37) and Dawood Hribat (36), from the village of Sikkah, which lies south of Beit ‘Awwa in Hebron District, were grazing their flock in pasturelands east of the village, a settler arrived in a car and sped toward them. Dawood immediately hid behind some rocks, and the settler kept speeding toward Rami and the sheep. Rami managed to get out of the way and lead the flock away.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Basel al-Adrah on 7 April 2024, Rami Hribat said:
The settler got out of the vehicle, and I saw that he had a gun on his hip. He started talking on the phone. I know him. He lives in a nearby outpost.
After about five minutes, a soldier arrived on a motorcycle. The settler came up to me, pulled out his gun and held it to my head. He told me in Arabic: ‘Why do you come here? Next time, I’ll run over you and your sheep. After 7 October, you have no land here. The land belongs to the settlers, and you’re not allowed to come here.’ He swore at me, slapped me, and kicked my legs until I fell to the ground. He kept hitting me on the back, over and over again. The soldier shouted at me, and I didn’t understand what he wanted from me.
Then the settler took my phone while swearing. He asked why I was taking pictures of his house, meaning the outpost where he lives. I denied it, and then suddenly he started yelling at me to take my shoes off, while threatening me at gunpoint. I obeyed and took off my shoes, and he took them and threw them far away and shouted at me to get lost. The attack lasted about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, my father, whom Dawood called, arrived. The settler pointed the gun at him, too, and ordered him to lift up his clothes. He said to him too: ‘Why did you come here? You have no land after 7 October.’ Then the settler and the soldier, who was just standing there protecting the settler, left with the settler threatening to shoot me if I grazed there again. I left with my father and Dawood, who had been hiding all this time.
I haven’t gone back to graze in that area since that day, and the settler hasn’t returned my phone.