Kobar, Ramallah District: An Israeli soldier and armed settlers violently abducted two Palestinians from the village, abused them, and fired at other residents

On Saturday afternoon, 26 April 2025, M.A., a 35-year-old father of six, stepped out of his house after his six-year-old son reported seeing armed people nearby. He was immediately attacked by a soldier and settlers who threatened to shoot him. They beat him and led him to an olive grove about 25 meters away, where they forced him to kneel. Meanwhile, five more settlers joined them, and after about ten minutes, they also brought M.A.’s uncle, A.A., a 53-year-old father of two, who had come outside after hearing the commotion.

When village residents approached to drive the attackers away by throwing stones, the soldier and one of the settlers opened fire at them. Then, one of the settlers took A.A. to his house, entered it, took A.A.’s phone from his wife at gunpoint, locked the house, and threw the key outside. The settler took A.A. back to the grove, where the abuse of the two continued.
 

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After about half an hour, five of the settlers led M.A. and his uncle through a field of rocks and thorns toward an outpost that had been established about two months earlier, about a kilometer southwest of the village. The two men stumbled and got injured repeatedly along the way. A.A., who had undergone cardiac catheterization a few months earlier, suffered from shortness of breath and dizziness, and when he fell, the settlers beat him on his back.

When they reached the outpost, the settlers let the uncle go, after threatening him that he would be held responsible for any stone-throwing in the village. The settlers returned his ID card but not his wallet and phone, which they had taken at the beginning of the incident, and he was forced to walk home, a distance of about a kilometer. Upon his return, he was taken to a hospital where he was diagnosed with bruises on his shoulder, lower back, and left leg.

M.A. was taken away from the outpost by soldiers in a vehicle, apparently to the settlement of Nahaliel, where he was detained, denied access to the bathroom, and mistreated for many hours. The soldiers then drove him to the entrance of another village, returned his phone, and abandoned him there. M.A. found a Palestinian car that took him to Kobar, and from there he was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with severe bruises on his body.

On 29 April 2025, B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh collected testimonies from the two victims:

M.A., 35, a married father of six, gave the following testimony:

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On Saturday, 26 April 2025, at 2:30 P.M., I was at home when my six-year-old son Bassam told me he saw armed people near the house. He was very frightened. I got up immediately and went out to check. When I got to the street, I heard someone say to me in Hebrew, loudly, something like “Come here.” I turned around and saw a man in a military uniform with a long rifle and a green hat, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties, standing 10–15 meters away from me behind a tree. He aimed his gun at me and ran toward me, pressed the barrel to my mouth, and said in Arabic, “Shut up, don’t talk, I’ll shoot you.”

In less than a minute, two armed settlers with long rifles arrived. Each grabbed one of my arms, and together they put my hands behind my back. The man in the military uniform hit me hard from behind on my right shoulder with the butt of the rifle, and one of the settlers slapped me in the face. Then one of them pushed my head down with his hand, and the other two pushed me from behind and forced me to walk about 20–25 meters like that. They made me kneel under a tree with my head down, and then one of them pressed his knee against my back.

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Soon, a few more settlers who looked religious arrived, most of them armed. They took my phone and started looking through it. The man in the military uniform and one of the settlers left and came back about ten minutes later, leading my uncle, A.A., 53, who lives nearby. They made him kneel beside me in the same position and asked him about his phone, which he did not have with him. Then one of the settlers dragged him violently back to his house to get his phone. They returned in less than ten minutes. 
While they held us there, the settlers beat and swore at us, and fired live fire at some youths from the village who tried to get close to us. Every time I tried to ask why they had taken us, they told me to “shut up,” pointed their guns at me, and threatened to kill me. After 30-40 minutes, five settlers forced us up and dragged us violently, then forced us to run with them quickly. The man in the military uniform and another settler stayed in the village near our houses.

They made us run like that for 500–600 meters on very rough terrain and then made us kneel again under an olive tree. Three settlers went toward the outpost, and two stayed with us. While I was sitting there, I heard gunfire from the village. After about five minutes, a white off-road vehicle came from the outpost and stopped near us. There was a soldier inside who asked me and my uncle our names. He stayed there for about 30 minutes, and then, as far as I understood, told the settlers, “Ten more minutes and then go,” and drove toward the outpost. One of the two settlers who stayed with us searched me and found my car key in my pocket. He asked me about the car and then I heard him tell the other settler to go back to the village to bring my car.

The soldier and the settler who had stayed in the village came to where we were. The settlers took off my shirt, tied my hands very tightly behind my back with zip ties, blindfolded me, and dragged me for about 10–15 minutes. On the way, I fell and hit rocks, thorns, and fences. When we arrived, they made me sit and said, “Don’t move.” Then I heard a woman’s voice asking what my name was. After five minutes, they took off my blindfold, and I saw that I was at the outpost, which had been established about two months earlier. There were seven armed soldiers there, five men and two women. 

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One of the soldiers asked me my name, then asked me in Arabic why I threw stones. I answered that I was arrested in front of my house and did not throw stones. When he insisted, I said to him, “I’m wearing flip-flops. Does it make sense that I would throw stones in flip-flops?” The soldier said to me in Arabic, “You’re a liar,” and threatened to take me for a Shin Bet interrogation. He told me to unlock my phone and untied my hands for that purpose, then asked for my ID card and I told him it was at home. One of the female soldiers took several pictures of me, and then the two female soldiers led me to a military vehicle parked about 10 meters away, where they blindfolded me again with a white cloth and tied my hands, this time in front. 
They put me in the vehicle, which drove for about 10–15 minutes on a bumpy road, then stopped. They took me out, and I think we were at the settlement of Nahaliel, because it is the closest settlement to Kobar, and during the ride I managed to see a bit of the way despite the blindfold. They put me in a room and made me sit handcuffed and blindfolded, but I managed to see a little. Four soldiers stood around me, taking turns. After about an hour, a soldier came and tightened the zip ties. I asked to go to the bathroom, and one of the soldiers told me, “Shut up.” I asked again and again, and in the end they took me for a 10–15-minute walk to the bathroom. I am diabetic and need to go to the bathroom quite often, so this happened several times. I would ask and they would take me for a 10–15-minute walk there. Every time I fell asleep, one of the soldiers kicked me. 

They kept me like this for several hours, and then three female soldiers came into the room and told me to stand up. They led me out of the room to a black, non-military vehicle and put me in the back seat. One of the female soldiers sat next to me. They opened the windows and turned on the air conditioning at a low temperature while I was wearing only a tank top. After about 15 minutes, the vehicle stopped, and they took me out. They told me to put my hands up and place them on the vehicle, and one of the soldiers cut the zip ties. I took off the blindfold and asked the soldiers where I was. One of them told me in Arabic, “Shut up,” and then they gave me my phone and left. 

I hailed a Palestinian car that was passing by and asked where I was. It turned out that the soldiers had left me near the village of Ras Karkar. I called my mother and told her where I was, and my cousin came and took me to al-Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, where I had tests and it turned out that I had severe bruises in different parts of my body.

A.A., a 53-year-old father of two, described how settlers kidnapped him in his testimony:

On Saturday, 26 April 2025, around 2:30 P.M., I was at home and heard shouting. I went out to see what was happening, and I saw in the street, across from the house, two armed settlers dragging my nephew, M.A., into agricultural land with olive trees. I shouted at them from the balcony, “Why are you dragging him?” Then I went inside to get dressed. I went out because I was afraid they would harm M.A., and then a soldier and a settler, both with long rifles, aimed their guns at me, grabbed me by force, hit me, and led me to the field where I saw M.A. kneeling on the ground while they were hitting him on the neck. They forced me to sit in the same position. At that moment, there were seven settlers there, including the two who had dragged me. 

Later in his testimony, A.A. described the impact of the outpost on their lives:

What happened to me and my nephew is an act of thuggery by the settlers, intended to instill fear in the farmers and prevent us from reaching our land. I have about 17 dunams (1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters) with 250 olive trees, which yield at least 100 cans of oil per year, and they are located about 800 meters west of the outpost. That is, the outpost was established roughly halfway between my house and my land. Now, I’m scared to go to the land, because whoever goes there can’t be sure they’ll return safely because of the settler attacks.

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