Until February 2025, the community of Khirbet Abu a-Rish, which stood on lands belonging to the villages of Rantis and a-Lubban al-Gharbiyah, was home to the extended Mahariq family - a mother, her five sons and their families - a total of 29 people, including 11 children.
The family is originally from the town of a-Samu’ in the South Hebron Hills. They moved to the village of Deir Ballut in 2000, but in 2006, after the Civil Administration demolished some of their homes and issued demolition orders for others, they left Deir Ballut and relocated to the Abu a-Rish area, where they resided up to their forced displacement and made their living from shepherding.
In 2017, the Civil Administration demolished three of the family’s homes, which housed 13 people (including five minors), as well as five non-residential structures, forcing the family to move several dozen meters away and rebuild their homes.
In early 2023, settlers set up the Avihai Farm outpost about a kilometer from the community’s homes. After the outpost went up, its founder, Eitan Melet, began harassing the family, and their grazing areas shrank as they were afraid to go near the outpost.
Harassment by the settlers intensified after the war broke out on 7 October 2023, and the community’s access to grazing land was further restricted. They were forced to sell much of their flock to cover expenses.
On the night of 13 April 2024, a group of settlers set fire to two of the community’s residential tents while two family members were asleep inside. The two managed to escape in time, but the tents and everything in them burned down.
In the wake of this attack, the family decided that the children and some of the women would return to their old homes in a-Samu’, while the men would stay behind to guard what was left. The family’s matriarch and two of her daughters-in-law remained in Khirbet Abu a-Rish as well.
The settler harassment did not stop. On 27 January 2025, the family got into an argument with Melet, who was grazing his cattle near the community. Soon, four settlers and six soldiers—known to the community as settlers themselves—arrived in an ATV and two off-road vehicles, some armed with clubs, others with firearms.
The settlers and soldiers attacked the family members, hitting them with clubs and rifle butts. After about ten minutes, the family managed to get away and called the police. When police officers and more soldiers arrived, they let the attackers leave without detaining anyone. Bilal Mahariq, 46, was struck on the head with an iron bar and had to be rushed to the hospital.
On Friday, 21 February 2025, around 5:00 A.M., a military vehicle arrived at the community. Four soldiers got out and began slashing tents with knives and destroying furniture and other belongings. They then threatened to burn the tents with everyone inside if residents did not leave within a week.
In the days that followed, the soldiers returned to harass the residents, detaining them, forcing them to sit on the ground for various durations, and sometimes beating them.
On 28 February 2025, the remaining residents decided they could no longer endure the pressure and left their homes. Some returned to a-Samu’ and moved in with friends in the nearby village of Deir Ballut, taking the 70 sheep they had left.
Mohammad Mahariq, 35, described the events in testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh on 4 March 2025:
On Friday, 21 February 2025, around 5:00 A.M., an Israeli army vehicle arrived at our tents. Four soldiers in full army gear got out. Their faces weren’t covered. One soldier stayed by the vehicle while three came over to our tents.
I think one of them had come before, with Eitan the settler, but he was wearing civilian clothes then.
When they arrived, my brother Isma’il and my mother were already awake. She was baking bread. One of them demanded Isma’il hand over the tractor’s registration and the papers for a mashtuba (unlicensed) vehicle we had.
Meanwhile, my brothers, nephews, and I woke up and saw the other two soldiers heading over to our tents. Suddenly, they started slashing the tent tarps with knives.
One of them shoved my elderly mother (69) and dumped the flour she was using on the ground. Then they ordered all of us to gather in front of the tents, and the two soldiers destroyed our furniture, blankets, and pillows, throwing everything on the ground.
The soldier who checked the papers started threatening us, saying he’d burn the place down with everyone inside if we didn’t leave within a week.In the days after, the military vehicle kept returning. The soldiers demanded everyone’s IDs and phones, forced us to sit on the ground, and sometimes beat us.
They never came at a set time — sometimes in the early morning, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes more than once a day.
All this time, Eitan would also come to our tents with his cattle and film us on his phone. On days he didn’t show up, he flew a drone above our tents.On Friday, 28 February 2025, around 3:00 P.M., we finished packing our essentials, loaded everything and the 70 head of sheep we had left onto vehicles, and took everything to a friend’s place in Deir Ballut, near Rantis.
My brothers Ismail’s and Bilal’s wives moved to a-Samu’, south of Hebron, and my wife and I have been staying with a friend in Deir Ballut so I can stay close to our community’s site. I go back to check on our tents from time to time.