Turmusaya, Ramallah District: Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian family during the olive harvest, injured one of the harvesters, and vandalized his car

On Saturday, 18 October 2025, at around 8:00 A.M., a family of farmers from the town of Turmusaya went to harvest olives on their land, located in an area designated as Area B in the Oslo Accords, about two kilometers east of the town’s houses. In 2024, the outpost of GivAt Or Nachman was established some 700 meters from the family’s land, also in Area B.

R.A., 53, a member of the family, worked with his son in one plot, while his father, 73, worked with three hired laborers in a plot about 100 meters away.

At around 10:00 A.M., about eight masked settlers carrying clubs arrived and split into two groups. One group ran toward R.A., while the other tried to start his car, which was parked about 30 meters away.

The settlers who ran toward R.A. attacked him with stones. He threw stones back in an attempt to fend them off. R.A.’s son called the other harvesters over. At that moment, one of the settlers approached R.A. and struck him on the head with a club. R.A. fell down, and two other settlers beat him as he lay on the ground.

Meanwhile, the other group of settlers smashed the car windows after failing to start the engine. They then threw a flammable substance inside and set the car on fire.

At this stage, R.A.’s father and the laborers arrived, as well as R.A.’s son, who was driving his grandfather’s car. The settlers fled north. The farmers managed to extinguish the fire before it fully consumed the vehicle. R.A. was taken to the clinic in Turmusaya, where his head wounds were stitched.

In a testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh, R.A., 53, said:

Image

On Saturday, 18 October 2025, at around 8:00 A.M., my son and I went out of our house in the center of the village to our land in an area known as a-Dalajeh, east of town. My father drove behind us with three hired laborers. We arrived at around 8:30 A.M. There were six of us altogether.

We split into two groups: my son and I worked in one of the plots, and my father and the three workers worked in another plot, farther down, about one hundred meters east of us. We started harvesting olives and worked for about an hour and a half without running into any problems. I didn’t see any settlers in the area either.

At about 10:00 A.M., seven or eight masked settlers showed up where we were. I didn’t notice if any of them were armed, but they were holding wooden sticks with nails at the ends. When they got there, they split into two groups: one went to my car, which was parked about 20-25 meters from us on a dirt road, and the other approached me. I saw the first group trying to start the car, but they apparently failed and then began smashing its windows. After that, they threw something inside the car that started a fire.

Just then, the second group began throwing stones at me. I threw stones back at them, but one of them got close, hit me with a stick, and knocked me to the ground. Two more settlers joined him and began beating me brutally with the sticks they were holding. At that moment, I thought they were going to kill me.

Then the settlers backed off me. I ran away about 20–30 meters. I saw my son trying to push the settlers back and calling out to my father for help. After a few minutes, my father and the workers reached me. My son got into my father’s car and drove toward the settlers in an attempt to push them back. As soon as my father and the workers arrived, the settlers withdrew northward. I saw them get into a small white car that was parked about 500–600 meters north of our land.

Thanks to my father’s intervention, the workers and my son managed to get the fire under control quickly.

After the attack, I drove to the clinic in town, where they stitched the wound behind my right ear with seven stitches. My face was severely bruised, especially around the left eye.

Up until two years ago, we cultivated our land east of the village, which covers a total area of 50 dunams (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares), and no coordination was required. But about a year and a half ago, settlers set up an outpost about a kilometer east of our land, and since then, they have been attacking farmers and damaging agricultural structures and land near the outpost. The plot where I was attacked, covering about 10 dunams, yields at least 15 jerrycans of olive oil every year. My father, 73, went to another one of our plots in the a-Dalajeh area, covering 15 dunams, and found that the branches of dozens of olive trees there had been broken.